Knights of the Cosmere Two
by CosmereLover
Summary: The sequel to KotC 1, which I've also published here. As before, this says SA and MB, but it's pretty much the whole cosmere - even more than before, this time. It's written by a whole bunch of people, not just me, so come to the Shard and check us out! KotC RP2 is, in my opinion, much better than the first, and can probably be read without reading #1. If you have questions, PM me.
1. Chapter 1

**Tesh:** I stare up at the stars, tiny pinpricks of light against a deep, almost black, blue. A firm breeze blows over my face, and I am reminded of an old friend's words, written in a letter. _If you feel a swift breeze rushing by, just know it's me moving faster than ever before. I am free, because of you all. _

I lay on my back, staring at the stars, in the middle of the Field of Rebirth. Memories of my old friend are always there, just lurking out of sight. But one image comes back to me even now, a year after his death. His last smile frozen for eternity on his face. A peaceful smile. He found the peace he'd been looking for for all his life.

I slowly stand up and make up camp, as I don't want to sleep in the city. As I work, I try to imagine what Scadrial looked like during the days of ash and nights of mists. I lay down on my bedroll and stare at the sky some more. Finally, I cannot bear it any longer and take a crumpled, worn, dirty piece of paper out of my pocket, reading the words that I memorized months before.

_Friends, _

_I was born and raised with darkness all around me. I haven't known what it feels like to do good in the world until now. You have shown me that there is more in life than simply living. I will always remember that, even in the Beyond. Because while I did not live to the fullest during my life, the ending is where it counts. _

_Do not remember me. But you can remember what I did. I kept running. And I still am. If you feel a swift breeze rushing by, just know it's me moving faster than ever before. I am free, because of you all. Thank you, friends… _

_Your most humble of servants, _

_Mathis - Knight of the Wind _

A cloud drifts across the moon, and I feel a slight pang of loss, thinking about the first days of the Knights of the Cosmere, with Carola, Mathis, Sam, Contessa, and Cole, the betrayer. The one who escaped after he and Sam destroyed the Splinter. But Sam went with him. I put the note away and continue to stare at the stars. Then darkness closes around me, and I am lost.

I dream I am flying over Roshar. Not Windrunning, but actually flying. I soar over the Shattered Plains, towards Urithiru. I alight on top of the tower city, and walk down several floors and enter a room. The room of the first official meeting of the Knights. The whole meeting is replayed before my eyes, and I watch as Cole dashes across the room and stabs me with the poisoned dagger. I crumpled to the floor, and then all went black.

I sit up suddenly on my bedroll, panting and shielding my eyes from the light of sunrise. Relaxing slightly, I get up and break camp.

**S4S:** I lean against the side of the small building, looking down at the stars below my feet. Countless blue lines, countless blue specks, lay still under the earth's surface amidst a pure, black background. Allomantic lines stretch out far around me; the hidden blood vessels of Scadrial. My anger fumes. I shift away from the building and begin to store weight, Compounding myself so that I feel weightless. As I break my bonds with gravity, I feel as if I am floating among the stars. This calms my body and mind. The weight of my clothes and mask are what keep me from flying away.

I sense movement to my left. I end my Compounding and return to normal weight, tense. I see a group of people, five, leaving through the door, their blue outlines moving away from the building. Ironic…I begin to follow after them, Pushing and altering my weight to propel myself from rooftop to rooftop. My faint trace of burning tin and my Allomantic blue vision keeps me from running into anything around me as I move silently overhead. As I follow the group, many of them become overly boisterous as they walk. They are clearly drunken as outline after outline falls to the ground throughout the course of me trailing them. After some time, the moving blue lines of others begin to fade away. Soon the only moving lines are those now in the slums of this city. It's time to cut my final ties.

Without a second's hesitation, I jump from the building, tapping weight as I fall to the ground. I land in the middle of them, smashing into the street, cracking stone around me. The group of five get thrown backwards from me by the sudden force of the impact. I unwrap the hook from the harness at my waist as I begin to spin among the drunken men. I see the blue hook flash into the man in front of me, blue lines exploding from his side. My first blood. With a strong pewter throw, I hurl the first body around as it smashes into two others who have begun to rise. The three crash together with a sickening crunch. The fourth man stumbles away from the fight, fleeing for his life. Pushing the hook outward, I feel it snag into his back. I Pull the hook back, along with the blue outline; although I can see them, I cannot Push or Pull a living person.

I catch the hook on the edge of the chain as I turn my arm and smash my weight into the man, collapsing his ribs. He then collides with the ground, and I feel him snap under me.

I feel the fifth and final man behind me. I turn and see his outline, lying back in a defensive position, bracing himself. I slowly stride toward him, saving this one for last.

Mask was a sight. Robes like those of Inquisitors of old. His hood was up, and dark inner robes added to the eeriness of his figure. His chain and metal hook now stained red struck fear into Bryce as his killer walked toward him. But that mask…hardened aluminum, able to withstand Allomantic Pushes and Pulls both physical and emotional. Scrapes and gashes across the front like scars, and a bold crimson tear of paint on the left side falling from one of the two small slits for where the eyes should have been. It was terrifying to behold.

And it was his masterpiece.

A hand, one much too strong to be that of a man, grabbed him by the neck and raised him up off the ground. His thoughts were clear in his dying moments; no drink fouled his mind. He was seeing clearly. His life's work was now complete. Mask continued to stare at him with unseen eyes of steel.

"Whatever you choose to become," Bryce choked out, "Remember what I did for you. Because when all is said and done, you will be thanking me for what I did to you." At first, nothing. Then his windpipe broke. The hand let go, and Bryce fell to the ground.

A final intake. "You will thank me..." A final exhale.

I look at the dead outline of my maker. The final words of this man echo through my head. I thought killing these men would end my hatred. Now it rages. I fall to my hands and knees as I let out a rabid scream. I PUSH outward, weight and pewter at full strength. Doors and windows break. Glass and dust from cracked buildings rain down on me.

Five bodies lay dead in the night. Five spikes. Five curses…

**Tesh:** I pack everything into a bag and sling it over my shoulder. Looking behind me, I feel like I am leaving my peace behind, and traveling towards deep darkness. But of course I do. Up ahead is the city where Sazin was killed, Mahshi lost, and my life cracked. Sun well above the horizon, I make my way to the center of the city. I don't know its name. Entering an alleyway, I see five motionless mounds. Bodies.

I curse and summon my Shardblade. Ani came with me on this trip. I enjoy her company; it makes the trip more bearable. _Now, _she says. _Wherever the murderer is, he has just attracted the attention of a princess not to be trifled with. _

I roll my eyes. "Storms, Ani. For the last time, I'm not a princess! I was just adopted by a highprince."

We fall silent and listen. I put my hand to my pocket to make sure I still have my extra spheres.

**S4S:** I feel someone closing in. Suddenly, almost instinctively, I store weight and fling myself upward into the sky with a strong Push, propelling myself farther than a typical Push. That horrifies me, how instinctively I do it. I fly upward, and sure enough, a rough blue outline floats around below me. I fly through the air, holding tightly to my bloodied hook in white knuckles.

**Tesh:** I dismiss my Shardblade, and Ani appears, floating around my head. "What should we do now? There was definitely someone who was just here."

"Ani, go see if you can find them, whoever they are. I will continue my search, and when you find them, come tell me and take me to them," I say briskly.

Ani sighs and disappears into the sky.

I walk off, slowly, deliberately, hand resting on my side sword, and stepping gingerly as if on broken glass. I feel slightly weaker, without knowing that Ani can appear at a moment's notice and solidify into a Shardblade in my hand. Of course, I have the obsidian daggers in my boots, the obsidian-tipped spear strapped to my pack, and my aluminum side sword.

**Sami:** Sam hefted her pack. Rather than using her abilities to fly, she preferred to walk. If you used your abilities for _everything_ one tended to get out of shape, it seemed - even with Stormlight. It gave her a sense of satisfaction that anyone passing by would only see a girl trudging down a dusty road, rather than a dangerous warrior, and besides, there was nowhere she had to be in a hurry anyway.

She felt so..._restless_. A year after her betrayal, she still constantly thought back to that night, as hard as she tried not to. That Splinter had been tricky. It had been a _real_ enemy, something that provided a challenge. She needed something like that again. Briefly, she wondered whether Tesh and Phoenix had ever tried to hunt her down.

She shrugged. Tesh was no longer any interest of hers.

**S4S:** I remain suspended in the air above the newcomer. Whoever it is, they don't seem to be moving anywhere anytime soon. A breeze begins to blow me off course due to my lack of weight. I slowly fall away from the scene before Pushing myself back further into the city.

**Tesh:** Suddenly, I snap my head up and see something drift over the next roof. I quickly breathe in the Stormlight from the spheres in my pocket and Lash myself after the person in the sky.

**S4S:** My tin warns me that the newcomer has found me. I quickly Push off the rooftop, weightless, and throw myself back toward the city, turning to see the blue form floating after me. A steel Misting? But its Pushes are off somehow. I already did the killing tonight that was necessary. Five bodies. I didn't need to add another. So I continue to fly through the lines of blue.

**Tesh:** I fall after the figure, who I can now tell is a man. Ani is back by my side, and I chase the figure over the rooftops, staying just enough behind him to not make him suspicious of my abilities.

**S4S:** _Enough. _I fall into the center of a large intersection in the city, crashing and breaking the stone with a sudden weight tap. I grab my hook and begin to swing it at my side, waiting…

**Tesh:** I glare down at the figure and hover in midair, breathing in all of the Stormlight from the spheres I am carrying with me, except for several in my pack. I erupt with light, dismiss all my Lashings, and set my pack down by the wall, extracting my spear as I do so. Slowly, I face my opponent and grin.

A true challenge at last. I quickly slip my spear into the straps on my back and draw my side sword. The less able my opponent thinks I am, the better. Ani sits on my pack to watch. She has always enjoyed watching a nice duel. Still glowing very brightly, I slowly advance, sword held at the ready, smile stretching even wider.

**S4S:** I watch as the figure lands down in the square. No evil grin comes to my face. This is life and death. I won't go back…I slowly advance on my attacker, my pewter flaring as strong as my emotions. I won't go back…Then, tapping weight, I throw my hook outward with pewter and a massively weighted throw. The blue outline flashes outward at the figure.

**Cole:** Cole materializes back into the Physical Realm. The sun and sky of Scadrial still felt wrong to him every time he visited. It took a long time to travel to Scadrial from Roshar, but it was worth it. If the rumors of someone messing with Hemalurgy were correct, then an Inquisitor wasn't too far away. The danger that an Inquisitor posed to people was too great to ignore.

**Sami:** A city loomed up in front of her. Lines of people stood outside waiting for the guards to wave them through. Sam glanced at the long line, then Pushed herself over the wall and into some random part of the city. She landed at the edge of a crazy, busy, loud market. Wanting to be away from the noise and heat, she turned into a dark alleyway. Wandering the alleys kept her occupied, and she felt as though -

"You move, darlin', and I cut your throat." Rough hands grabbed her from behind and a knife appeared at her neck. She sighed. Would thugs like these _ever_ learn their lesson about underestimating a girl? Without even lifting a finger, she burned iron and Pulled something metal from the high window behind her. There was a soft _thunk_, and the man slumped to the ground, a large bruise swelling on the back of his head. Sam whistled and walked off.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sat cross-legged in a large room in Elantris's central library, with books piled beside him and the pulse of Aon Ashe lighting the room magnificently. This was where he felt most at home, studying and finding truth. There was much truth still to be discovered about the cosmere. The book he was currently reading was by Khriss of Taldain, the infamous worldhopper who had catalogued more Shardworlds for the public's eye than, well, anyone else he knew at least. He had picked it up during his latest visit to Silverlight, the home of many like him. He was a member of the Seventeenth Shard, but he kept a low profile and did not involve himself as much as others. Galladon himself had even recently visited Roshar looking for Hoid. What a waste. That man knew how to hide himself better than anyone if he did not want to be found, and there were many mysteries surrounding him unknown even to Silverlight.

Preston stayed hidden. There were not many from Roshar who knew how to get here, at least without putting themselves at mortal peril, and he did not want to draw the wrong kind of attention. Sel was a technological marvel, so different than the nearly seven hundred years ago when he had first departed so long ago. There was an endless number of possibilities with the Dor, once you knew how to properly sequence the Aons. Also, it was nice to be able to experience the superhuman effects of being an Elantrian again.

The Knights didn't know how to access Sel as far as he knew, which is why he had come here. He didn't know if he could trust _any_ of them anymore, to be perfectly honest. Tesh had seemed at first to be the most altruistic, but Cole and Sam had been more focused on the goal of removing the Splinter, regardless of their actions afterward.

What worth was being 'noble' if you were incapable of getting business done that needed to be done? There were much larger things at stake in the cosmere. Yes, the journey was certainly more _interesting_ than the destination, but the destination still mattered. If your means of getting there were not enough, then you were dead. Here, at least, dying was next to impossible for him. There had been many who had tried means of gaining access to the Dor in other worlds, but all had failed. Well, unless you were in an Ire stronghold connected to one of the many Dor pipelines that had been built, but accessing those was not always easy, and the Ire were an odd bunch he would rather avoid.

Now all Phoenix wanted to do was read in peace and discover more truths that would aid him in his lifelong quest.

**Shadow:** I'm still getting used to it. The weightlessness, the incorporeal surges, the flashes from the world beyond when someone walks through me. It's not been easy, being a Shadow, and no matter what I do, I cannot get over the fact that I used to be alive. Some say that the Syphoning I do is part of it. But interacting with the physical world keeps my Connection to myself strong, so I continue my work. Passing away an eternity studying the cosmere is not always very rewarding. Sadly, it's the only way I yet have found to retain my sanity.

My sanctum feels almost lifelike, like I'm back in the Forests again. Only it's different. The trees here are too straight, and the air is too vibrant. The light pulsing from the vein of Dor I hijacked, keeping my writing desk and bookshelves substantive, is not quite bright enough to read by, so I have a lamp as well.

A soft pop draws my attention out of my current book, and I look over to see the dwindling light of one of the books I'd retrieved from the Elantrian library. I curse softly as I realize which one is gone. "Shades, I didn't get the chance to read that one yet. I wonder who's looking into the ancient art of ChayShan? I haven't seen anyone disturb the books in that section for an age..." I weigh the options before me. If I go get the book, I'll have to fight my way through the Dor. If I don't go now, I might miss something important. Someone appears to be studying ancient things. That could be intriguing.

"Well, I'll let them read for a little while," I decide, talking to the silence. "It couldn't hurt to finish the book I'm on, anyhow."

**Tesh:** I sigh and gently Lash the hook, so it loses a bit of momentum and lands neatly. "Never underestimate a girl with a sphere," I whisper under my breath, Lashing it again - into the sky - and start spinning my spear. I grin again.

Suddenly I jump forward and attempt to ram the spearhead into my opponent's left eye. He deftly sidesteps, so I try again. And again. He sidesteps. Clearly, I have underestimated him. I back up rather quickly, set my spear down by my pack, and draw my sword.

**S4S:** The form catches my hook before dropping the weapon. A bit of surprise shocks me. Not only that, but the hook falls upward? Who is this…woman? Yes, the voice is that of a woman. I can barely make out the feminine features. Although the hook flies upward, my weight keeps me grounded. I grit my teeth. No sneer back. This is life and death to me.

She attacks with a spear, and simple sidesteps evade each action she takes. Pewter flares within me like an inferno. This is almost instinctive. Why? As she backs away, the hook begins to sag downward. I grab the chain in two hands and throw the hook down in a powerful overhead swing. Pewter and weight plummet the hook down at the woman with blinding speed.

"I won't go back!" I yell as I attack. "You can't take me back!"

**Tesh:** "Storms." I quickly roll to the ground, Lash myself up, and touch the hook, Lashing it multiple times to the ground. I soar upward and I Lash myself back to the ground. I definitely underestimated him.

**S4S:** The hook becomes embedded into the ground with a solid crunch, more than firmly anchored. I begin to store weight, and, Pushing on a building behind me while Pulling on my hook simultaneously, I shoot through the air at blinding speed. At the last moment, I Compound my weight as I land feet first into my attacker. The amount of combined force breaks bones and sends her flying backward. I store weight, spinning easily in a backwards flip and landing just behind my hook as I rip it free with a pewter flare.

**Tesh:** "By the ten fools, I should have seen that coming," I grunt. The pain is horrible, but I have experienced worse. The Light shining from me dims slightly. I can feel my bones reknitting, and I stand up with a grunt. "Was that really necessary?" I ask. I retrieve my sword quickly, which had skidded a few feet when my opponent had hit me, and fall into a spear stance. I quickly correct myself, realizing my mistake.

**S4S:** The woman stands up. How? This is no Mistborn…"Was that really necessary?" she asks. Yes. It was. I won't go back.

I rush forward with pewter, moving faster than any normal Mistborn. I spin my hook and toss it toward the hand holding the sword. It wraps around the hand before embedding into the arm. Then, with a snap of my wrist, I pull the hook back, which pulls on her arm and spins the woman around so her back is towards me. Her sword clatters away from her. Throwing my arms forward, I place her in a solid chokehold, tapping weight to become solid as stone. "I. Won't. Go. Back!"

**Tesh:** "I...I don't know what you mean," I splutter. With the strength of Stormlight, I break free and fall back. The man is a lot stronger than I would have expected. The brilliance shining from my skin moments before had dimmed, and of course the wound my opponent had given me on my arm had healed, leaving only blood. Ignoring my sword, I fall into stance and summon my Ani in the form of a thin, wickedly sharp sword. "Trust me. I am not as easy to defeat as you would think."

**S4S:** "If it is just a challenge you seek," I hiss behind the mask, "then find someone else." I turn to leave, placing my hook at my waist. "That's why you attacked me, right?" I growl, stepping away. "To satisfy your entertainment? I have done nothing to you. You struck first." I sigh, turning slightly. "You may see this little fight as a game and sneer at your opponent," I say, "but this is life and death for me. I won't go back..."

**Cole:** Cole hopped across the city, following the Allomantic pulsing that he hoped would bring him to the supposed Inquisitor. It felt good to be able to soar through the mists. It had been too long since he returned home. The pewter pulses directed him to a street performer, demonstrating acts of strength to a small crowd. Cole gave a smile; it still brought joy to him whenever people didn't have to use their gifts for killing. His reminiscing was cut short when he detected the pulsing of flared metals. He tossed a coin down and began to see if he could find the source.

**Shadow:** I set my book back on the shelf with a sigh of satisfaction. It had taken me the rest of the night to finish it, but it was worth the concentration. Besides, I have no more need to rest as a Shadow.

"And to think I used to say I'd sleep when I was dead," I chuckle. If I had known how much time I'd have to study and read in the afterlife - if this can be termed such - perhaps I would have devoted more time to personal relationships. Maybe I would have found a companion in my work, maybe even started a family. Such speculation does little more than accentuate my loneliness, so I push it aside.

The Knights of the Cosmere...I still puzzle over their connection to the cosmere as a whole. The people appear to have noble intentions, but their methods make me wonder if their goals truly are worth the risk. Nevertheless, it is powers that they have that interest me. Such stunning combinations and collaborations between the Shards, whether intended or not, makes me wonder what one could accomplish with other, more subtle power couplings.

Glancing down at the missing book, my musings and contentment vanish like enraged shades at midnight. "Two more? Gone?" I shake my head and feel my shoulder-length hair whip my forehead; at least, I think I feel it. "Which ones did they take?" _And how did I not notice it? _This is significant. Someone else is studying, searching for something. That…shades, that actually _excites _me! I have studied in seclusion for so long I've forgotten what it's actually like to meet like-minded individuals. I pestered Silverlight in the past, but they rejected my application for being, quote, 'not actually able to do anything'. Well, now I might have another chance to study someone with interests similar to mine. I cannot pass up such a rare opportunity.

I take a few items with me - each of them a small, shining orb of light when not manifested in the Cognitive Realm. A fog bank that was frozen near the polar caps of Sel - that soul was the find of the century for me - a boat in almost perfect condition - buried in the desert for an ancient king - and my trusty lamp - also retrieved from this tomb. The last thing I do is the most unpleasant, which is why I've put it off for a while. The Dor is so strong of a presence, and so powerful a force, that unless I attune myself to its power in some small degree I am unable to so much as approach the land here. Living on the fringe on the world is difficult enough, but the trees negate some of that pressing force for me, so it's not unbearable.

Taking a crystal goblet - a real one, not the soul of one, but one left behind by a careless member of the Ire - I open up a small portion of the Dor pipeline and dribble the light into my drink, a carefully measured dose. Then, bracing myself, I imbibe the substance. Chaos flares to life within me, and I feel dizzy as a foreign power struggles to overwrite the Investiture already present in my soul. It passes in a few moments as I will the two powers to mingle but not clash. The pressure from the Dor vanishes. That does not mean my journey will be easy, but now at least it is possible. And with a ship that is attuned to Sel's Shards as well, I can ride the waves of power much more quickly than I could wade through them before.

I punch through the trees and underbrush until I reach the edge of the forest. A small, glowing form hovers in the air. "Let us depart, ancient friend."

The form looks up. A white-feathered bird with strange symbols for eyes. It never speaks, but seems intelligent enough to understand speech. I can't bring myself to name it, since it hasn't consented to such a personal act. I simply call it my friend.

The Dor rages in the air in front of me. I put a hand to it, then _push_ my way through. It resists me slightly, but I can move through it with less effort than would normally be required. I enter it fully, and the blinding light dims slightly, until I can see the faint outlines of a few things. Souls on the ground beneath me, monsters of the great deep and schools of fish. Syphon has given me the ability to see souls without having to touch them, but only one at a time. The rest of the while I see only the shimmering spheres.

Taking the boat from a pocket on my robe, I will it into full manifestation. It is longer than a normal boat, perhaps because it was used on a river rather than a sea. The sails writhe strangely in the Dor, unsure of which direction to pull the boat.

My friend flits up to the top of the mainsail - there are four sets of smaller sails from bow to stern - and waits expectantly. I touch the front of the mainsail and Syphon the energy of the Dor from that side. Not much, because I am not powerful, but enough to negate the idea of pressure. Low pressure on one side, high pressure on the other. Diffusion. The simplest form of movement in the universe. Sometimes, however, the simplest ways are the best.

The sail billows outward and the white-glowing ship lurches forward across the landscape, picking up speed as the laws of friction have no effect on it. Gently adjusting the pressure, I direct the ship towards Elantris.

**Tesh:** "You did it. It _was_ you. You killed those people back there," I whisper. "Why?"

**Cole:** Cole stops his jumping close enough to the pulsing to watch with his Feruchemical tin, but not close enough to be seen. He looks over and sees a partial Inquisitor, and..._Tesh? _Cole allows himself a sigh. _This will be more complicated than I thought,_ he thinks with annoyance. He makes sure to stay out of sight and extinguishes his metals. Just watching.

**Tesh:** I think I hear a faint click from a rooftop, but I ignore it. I stare at the man's back. "Why?" I ask again. He doesn't move.

**S4S:** I feel weak suddenly. Pewter doesn't protect the nausea that overcomes me. "They made me who I am. They made an _experiment_ of me..." I stand, uneasy, not caring of the possibility of another attack at the moment. Memories of pain and blood rush through me. Red. Crimson red.

"I wanted to destroy the Steel Inquisition after what they had done to me. But _they_ thought that you could fight fire with fire," I say, pointing to the massacre across town. "They made an Inquisitor of brute force. And instead of ending them, I became the very thing that I swore I would destroy...an Inquisitor."

I turn back and advance on the woman, stopping just before her blue outline. "Do you know what it's like to feel every part of your body as if it is on fire? Feel each spike tear through you like wet paper? Scream at the pain so much the screams aren't your own, but that of an animal? And the screaming continues until your vocal cords snap like a Mistborn. And when you wake, you see nothing but darkness although your eyes are open? Then you realize you have no eyes? And the only image of color that you remember is that of a bloodied steel spike getting thrust in each eye..."

I hardly hear the footfall of someone on a nearby rooftop. "I would think you have seen death before, but have you lived through it unwillingly? That, I think not." I look at the blue outline hard. "Am I not justified in my actions?"

**Cole:** Cole frowns at those words; the Steel Inquisition was ended a long time ago. He had only seen one real Inquisitor in the last three hundred years, and it gave him the fight of his life. A return of them doesn't bode well. Cole taps even more sight and hearing, making sure none of this is missed.

**Tesh:** I blink and stare. "I...I understand. I may have not been through the same things as you, but I understand." Puffs of light leave my mouth as I speak. The storm inside of me calms slightly. I'm nearly out of Stormlight.

Suddenly, an idea comes to my head, and I run over to my pack and extract a spanreed and board. I twist the jewel and wait for Varaseel to set up the one at Urithiru, then start to write. First I tell her about everything that has happened in the weeks I have been gone. _Varaseel, the Inquisition may have returned, and I might be bringing someone else back with me. You don't need to respond. I have to get going anyways. Also, I have not found Mahshi. I believe he might be dead. After all, a lot can happen in six years._

_May Honor be with you,_

_Teshani Kholin_

I hurriedly pack everything back into my pack, strap my spear back to the side, retrieve my sword, sheath it, and sling my pack over my shoulder. "Would you like to join me?" I ask.

**S4S:** "First you attack me, then wish for me to join you. I don't think so." I walk off. "This is my task. I will see it out myself..."

**Tesh:** I close my eyes and sigh again. "Listen, I usually don't approve of killing. But if you come with me, you could leave Scadrial." I open my eyes again and look at the Inquisitor.

**S4S:** "I have no intention of leaving this place," I say as I walk away. "I will not run from my problems."

**Tesh:** "You wish to face them head on. I can relate to that," I say. "But just turning your back on them for a while sometimes is just what you need, to forget about them for a while. As long as they don't need to be addressed right away."

**S4S:** "I _have_ turned my back on them," I hiss, "I was one of them. Now I am what's left."

**Serce:** Varaseel's grip tightens when she receives the message from Tesh. It's been a long time. Teshani occasionally tried to talk to her and Vara replied about the state of Roshar and avoided almost everything else. Vara twisted the gem to turn it off. _Not today,_ she sighed, looking back at Flux. _Not today._

**Tesh:** "Then accept what you are. Nothing can change it."

**S4S:** "I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!" I shout. It almost echoes behind my mask. "DO YOU THINK I WANTED TO BE THIS? DO YOU?"

**Tesh:** "No," I whisper. "I must leave now. The news that the Inquisition might have returned might be extremely important to the Knights." I hurriedly take out my spanreed and board and tell Vara to gather the Knights at Urithiru. Packing the board and fabrial back into my pack, I look up and see the man looking at me.

**S4S:** "Why do you fight?" I ask softly. My mask muffles much of the noise. I watch the woman kneel down and put items into what seems like a pack. She's strange. Knowledgeable of things and powerful beyond what I've known to exist. She said there was other places than Scadrial… "Tell me why you fight. If your ideals are alike, I may reconsider..."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sighs, closing his latest book. Preston makes himself visible to Phoenix only and begins to speak. "You know, you having me go retrieve all your books is not my idea of a fair deal. Do you know how many books you've requested are not actually even in this library?"

Phoenix starts. "What?! I thought I told you _not _to stir up trouble while we were here! Do you know how much effort it has taken to keep us below suspicion?"

Preston sighs. "Of course I was careful. The library has probably lost many of these books, you know. Why, I found many of them you asked for by one of the poles. I'm sure no one was actually using them."

Phoenix exhales. "Okay, you had me there for a moment, friend."

Suddenly, Phoenix notices a disturbance nearby. No...someone entering this room from the Cognitive Realm, here? Another Elsecaller from Roshar, also familiar with Sel? Unlikely. A member of the Seventeenth Shard, perhaps? Wait, he sensed a presence, although he saw nothing from the direction of the disturbance. Phoenix turned the corner to the row of shelves where he sensed the presence heading. Almost like...alive, but yet not. A shade perhaps? Not like the ones he'd experienced on Threnody, at least. He could sense the _ambition_ from those easily. "Who goes there?"

**Tesh:** "For my life. To attempt to regain my true family. That is why I am here. But I am almost positive it is lost now."

**S4S:** I nod. I know what it feels like to fight for family. And what it feels like to know you no longer have one. "I fight for others. I want no one to feel what I have felt," I sigh. "You may call me Mask. Now, what is your plan?" I don't know if this is the thing I should be doing. But instinct pushes me forward.

**Tesh:** "To protect the universe."

**Cole:** Cole hears the pseudo-Inquisitor promise to go with Tesh. He gives a snort at her line about protecting the universe. So far the Knights of the Cosmere have done nothing significant that he knows of. _At least he won't turn to slaughter with Tesh watching him_, Cole thinks. He begins to walk away.

**S4S:** I wait for her to finish gathering her things. She has obviously been to other places. I have no possessions with me other than those on my person. "I still have yet to learn your name..." I say, partially annoyed. It's been a long few hours.

**Tesh:** "Teshani Kholin," I say, stretching my hand out.

**S4S:** I shake her hand, consciously lowering my pewter. I need to show her - I need to show everyone - I am not some cold killer. Mask and spikes aside, I am the same as everyone else.

**Tesh:** I smile at Mask and lower my hand. "Follow me," I say, and I walk off into an alleyway.

**S4S:** I slowly follow after Teshani. I have no idea where she plans on going. But I've learned to take things as they come. That always keeps me on my toes. So I burn tin and follow behind.

A/N:

I welcome all comments except for rude ones! Please don't curse! PM AonEne on the 17th Shard if you're interested in joining us for our third roleplay!


	2. Tesh and Mask Get To Urithiru

**Tesh:** "I'm here!" I say as I walk into the room Varaseel is in.

**Serce:** "Welcome back, Tesh," Varaseel whispers, smiling softly. When Mask steps into the room, she shivers. How could he not be dead with that many spikes going through his body? He didn't even have eyes, could he see? Vara violently shivers again and turns to Tesh, trying to ignore that _thing_. It looks so human and...she blocks it out. "Tesh, I -" Vara begins.

"Where is everyone else?" Teshani asks, not hearing her.

**Shadow:** My craft slows as I end my Syphoning. It's taken quite a toll on me, and my mind has grown heavy with the thoughts of earth. Somehow, I manage to keep myself aware of my current situation. Sinking into the Physical Realm in such a manner...well, my brethren on Threnody might be my fate if I were to do such a thing. I do not care to chance it.

Focus. I must focus. Where? The library. Yes. I have reached it at last. I breathe deeply to calm myself; breathing has no other meaning anymore. Then I close my fist around the soul of the boat and it collapses back into a glowing sphere of light. I am at the front steps, having surfed over most of the city.

As I climb the steps I can't help but notice the city around me. Vast, grand Elantris has changed in just the last twenty years since I last visited it. There are significantly more people, and much more technology than I originally estimated to be attainable. Time is a strange thing when one has been dead for such a length as I. The library. Raoden's finest achievement, in my estimation. Here I see many globes of light pulsing within the books on the shelves before me. Shades, they really have expanded the fiction section! But I am not here for fiction. I am -

"Hello? What can this be?" An Elantrian is sitting in a section of books that only a few people have ever wandered through. Elantrians have always had a very bright presence in the Cognitive Realm. I can pick them out almost instantaneously by their luminescent form, pulsing with Investiture. Even with the Dor surging about me I cannot mistake them. But this one...this one is _blindingly _brilliant. And what's more, he appears to have a Splinter from Roshar with him.

I slog through the Dor, thicker here than in most places, to get a closer look at both, struggling desperately to keep myself invisible. I have to Syphon away the thought of being, which takes nearly all my concentration. So far, thankfully, the spren hasn't noticed me. But the man...is he looking at me? I duck behind a phantom bookshelf and peer around the edge.

"Who goes there?" He is most certainly looking at me. He cannot see me, but he knows where I am all the same. A worldhopper, likely with a fair amount of Breaths to be able to sense me, little more than a whisper of life. Those and the spren might account for how much Investiture I can see in him.

I decide to take a chance. I cease hiding myself and step into the center of the aisle. "Are you the inquisitive soul who has been taking my books?" I ask, folding my arms.

**S4S:** I stand outside as Teshani walks into a room of a strange building, but she urges me to follow anyway. Apparently one of her friends is there now. With a sigh, I follow. Teshani says that we are on another world now. I cannot fully tell as everything is just lines of blue on a black canvas, but certain smells, textures, and sounds are definitely unique.

As we had walked during our journey here on Roshar, Teshani had told me about who we were meeting. It was a long story of how this group called the Knights of the Cosmere came to be. She talked about how they destroyed a Splinter, whatever that is, and later became separated. It was an interesting story to describe what I was getting myself into.

I still didn't have Teshani's trust, but I hoped to gain it anyway. That seemed like it would be a difficult task. I had caught her outline looking at me more than a couple of times during the journey. If only people could see through the mask…but that is what a mask is for. A childhood riddle comes to my mind:

_Tool of thief, toy of queen, _

_Always used to be unseen. _

_Sign of joy, sign of sorrow, _

_Giving all likeness borrowed. _

I reluctantly walk inside. Teshani said this friend was Varaseel, and almost instantly I see the uneasiness I present to Varaseel at my mere presence.

"I will remain outside," I say softly before turning and leaving. Varaseel quickly turns from looking at my mask. The two then begin to converse. How am I going to do this? Will the rest of my life be that of blue outlines staring in horror at me? Is this my fate? So far, it seems most likely.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix starts as the presence he senses makes itself visible in front of him. It appeared to not have malicious intent, but you could never be sure. "Your...books...who are you?"

**Sami:** Sam glanced up and saw Cole. She hit him with a coin as hard as she could without drawing blood. "Storms, man, what are you doing here?"

**Cole:** Cole gives a grin at Sam's surprise. "I looked into the rumors of an Inquisitor on Scadrial, and there's some truth to them. A pseudo-Inquisitor that doesn't seem to have the full powers of a Mistborn was talking to Tesh on Scadrial. It's entirely possible he was recruited by Tesh. At least he won't turn to slaughter with Tesh around to stop him." Cole tosses his bag onto the ground. It hits with a surprisingly loud crash.

**Sami:** Sam groans. "_Tesh?!"_ she says, raising her eyebrows, "Recruiting an _Inquisitor_?" That was unexpected. And inconvenient. She Pushes herself up beside Cole. "You want me to follow them?"

**Cole:** Cole thinks for a second. "No, we have more important things to do than watch Tesh; let's just keep on our current course of action and only interfere if he goes mad. He's not a full Inquisitor, so dealing with him should be relatively easy."

**Sami:** Sam sighs and nods. "Fine, but if you're gonna do anything fun, let me know." She flipped one of her knives idly. "By the way, I got a lead on that spanreed conversation on the guy you took out. I'm heading into Elendel to check it out. Something looks fishy."

**Cole:** Cole nods. "I've got a location on Roshar. If this is what we think it is, we will have to raze the whole operation," he warns.

**Sami:** Sam shrugs. "I'll check it out and contact you. Any luck and I'll be able to meet you back at Roshar."

**S4S:** Time passes while the other two are inside. I haven't thought about much in the meantime. I began to store weight to feel lighter, and float amidst the stars at my feet. It's hot outside, so I can tell it's day. But the temperature seems to be slowly dropping, as evidence by my burning tin. After some time, boredom kicks in. I rise up and begin to wander around the building and nearby streets, going to about half weight. As I walk, I notice an oddly shaped outline. I begin to walk closer, and slowly more details are made out.

A large wagon, shown through the bolts and other metal around it, sits propped at an odd angle. A few men, as I can tell by their curses, are desperately trying to pull it out of a fissure in the ground. But there is another silhouette of blue under the wagon. Soon a cry comes from under it. That of an older woman. Rushing forward, I grab firmly against the bottom of the wheel stuck in the ground. Tapping weight and burning pewter and iron, I begin to pull upward on the wheel. At first nothing; I can feel the wheel wedged in the rock. Then the wheel breaks away suddenly, and the rest of the wagon skids a few feet away. Wood splinters shoot outward.

The others go silent. After a moment of surprise, I rush over to the woman and help her to rise. She seems fine, only holding her chest and gasping for breath. Now that I am close, I can see she is looking directly at me, where my eyes should have been. Then she smiles. No hatred. No fear. Just a warm smile.

"Are you all right?" I ask through the mask.

She nods. I do the same before returning to my original course. I can't help but see the other men as I walk away. The woman shows no fear or hatred, but these men boil with it. I sigh as I walk away. The woman said no words, but her smile made me feel human again. The men may not see me as one of them, but the old woman did. Underneath my mask, I smile.

**Shadow:** "Wilberforce Thornton. You stole my books. It's quite difficult to retrieve them from here, you know." It gives me a small measure of satisfaction to see his perturbation and surprise. It's nice to know I can still do that to people, even as a Cognitive Shadow. Especially as a Shadow. I rest against the edge of the bookshelf, trying not to grow dizzy from the light the man is emanating. "You are seeking something in the ancient texts. What is it?"

**Phoenix:** _Interesting_, Phoenix thinks to himself. The man is clearly not corporeal, but seems alive enough cognitively and spiritually. And with much more Investiture than Phoenix would have suspected from such an entity. The man glimmered as if he held a thousand Breaths.

"Ancient texts...well, yes, I suppose you could say that. Ancient is so relative. If you must know, I seek truth. Is that so hard to believe from a patron of this grand library? Now let me ask you a question, good sir; how are you alive even this much? I know where you just came from, and if you know how to travel _there _and survive to tell the tale, you must not be from around these parts.

So let me guess. Nalthis? No, Edgli would not allow you to linger, and if she did, she would Return you. Scadrial? Unlikely. Only one has managed that feat that I know of, and now he may as well be a god. Roshar? I hope not. I just went through great pains to distance myself from there. Threnody? Again, unlikely, as the shades that linger there become corrupted. Okay, now you have my attention. You have achieved a very unlikely state, and have proven yourself resourceful enough to remain this way. What's your story? What interest have you in such texts that are seven hundred years old and predate even the Reod?"

**Tesh:** "Where is everyone else? Have they responded yet?" I ask, not hearing what Varaseel is trying to tell me. "We must get as many Knights together as possible!" Suddenly, I remember Mask and stick my head out of the door. "Storms," I mutter. "I've gotta go find Mask. See you!" I take off down the corridor, feeling slightly guilty for leaving Varaseel so abruptly.

Finally, I find Mask sitting on one of the many terraces, staring at a blue sky. He seems happier, somehow. I walk over and sit next to him. "Have you been here the whole time?" I ask. "Why'd you leave?"

**S4S:** I look over at Teshani as she sits down next to me. I'd returned from my walk a few minutes ago, the smile of the old woman still held close to my memory. "Varaseel seemed on edge at my presence," I say as she settles next to me. "Besides, you said it's been a while since you've seen each other. I figured I'd give you time to catch up." I don't tell her about my experience at the wagon, but it does get me thinking. Teshani continues to look at me and my mask. "What did you see when you first fought me?" I ask softly. "I want only honesty, please."

**Sami:** "Well, I'll see you around. While you're on Roshar, keep an eye on the new guy. I'll talk to you later when I've got something on Elendel." Sam walks to the edge of the roof. "Oh, and if you happen to run into Tesh, tell her I said hello." Sam smirks and steps off the edge of the roof, disappearing from Cole's sight. Then she heads towards one of her safe houses in the city for a restock.

**Shadow:** I smile. "You are indeed well-informed. I am, however, from Threnody. No," I say quickly, "I am not a shade. Silver does hurt me, but I would advise you not to try using it here in Elantris."

"That...that doesn't make any sense." His confusion is matched only by his interest. "How?"

"There are many ways to become a Shadow." I lift my palms up. "I discovered one of them. There's knowledge of the cosmere everywhere if one knows how to look. That knowledge is what I seek." The man's spren moves out of his glowing countenance, and I am able to identify it. "Inkspren? You are an Elsecaller, too? Of course, that would make sense of your ability to see into the Cognitive Realm. What are your names, friends?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix was confounded but yet intrigued. He had never heard of a Cognitive Shadow from Threnody who had not been twisted into one of the many dangerous shades. This had become an interesting conversation, indeed. Phoenix was a little unsettled that the man had been able to identify Preston even though his spren had not revealed himself to this Wilberforce. Phoenix sighed inwardly. He would never learn more if he did not open up a bit. "The name's Phoenix. And I have no idea how you can sense him, but this is Preston."

"How do you you do, sir!" Preston exclaims.

"So you have been to Roshar on your travels, I see. Say, you aren't by chance affiliated with the Knights of the Cosmere, are you?" Phoenix said, once again on his guard.

**Tesh:** I remain silent for a few seconds, thinking. Staring at the distant horizon, I whisper, "I saw a murderer." I turn to look at him. "What did you see?"

**S4S: **I look ahead to where she is looking. I see nothing but black in front of me. "If I could see," I scoff. Then, more solemnly, "I see a victim."

**Tesh: **"Of what?" I am not offended, but genuinely curious.

**S4S: **"I was born in Luthadel when the ash was falling as it should be," I begin, "but the world was dying. No one knew it then. My father was a craftsman and a Tineye. He made many great works of wood. Chairs for nobles, tables for balls. The tin gave him an extraordinary sense of detail in his art. He even told me one day he made a throne for the Lord Ruler himself." I smile under the mask at the lie a father would make to have his son look up to him.

"My mother was the money handler of us three. She was actually part Terris, acquiring a strong sense of math and sciences. The numbers came easily to her, unlike me." Another smile hidden. "Mother and Father, they were complete opposites. Yet there was no one else who could take the place of the other. They truly were perfect for each other." I look down at the metal on the stone at my feet. My thoughts begin to darken as the blackness around me seems to close in. "Midnight. I was helping my father oil down one of his side tables, his hand guiding mine evenly to coat the finishing. Mother was near the fire, using its light to read the ledgers by. As we were working, a crack of wood sounded from the door. We turned to see an obsidian axe slice through the door; a door Father had built for Mother.

A man with steel for eyes came in. He said no words, yet he smiled as he swung at Mother. She fell without another word. Father grabbed one of his iron mallets, throwing me backward, and charged the Inquisitor. "Run, my son...run!" The final words my father spoke before falling next to my mother. I ran. Out the window and away from the loss of my parents. The Inquisitor never found me, but I did watch as my home was burned to the ground. Everyone thought it was an accident my parents caused. They were wrong..." I pause before continuing on. "The years went by. The Lord Ruler died. I didn't care. The earth was reborn. I didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. It was only when I heard that the Steel Inquisition was back that I cared again. I found out that although they were hidden, that the Inquisition was working toward making another cult of Inquisitors. Others opposed this, and I joined those against it. I would not allow the Inquisition to return.

They took me in. They called themselves the Five. Five who had been alive when the Inquisitors of old were first created. They said they knew the secrets on how to make one, and destroy one. I offered to help in any way. I would not let another child have to become an orphan at the cost of an Inquisitor." I clench my fists, my blood boiling. "I was told to Pull against a weight. They found out how much I could Pull. Then a relaxing sedative was given. I fell on a table and was strapped to it. It began…

They calculated how many spikes would be required to have the same effect on a Push. They tested how much pewter would be needed. They saw tin as a requirement for me to move even with steel vision aiding me. They gave me my mask to 'cover the procedure'. All of this was to make a being of brute force. Another Inquisitor." I look back at Teshani. She seems disturbed at the gruesomeness. I'll never disclose the exact events that happened that night. "In the end, I became the very thing I swore to destroy. Inquisitor. But I will never become one of them." I look back out into the darkness ahead.

"I am a victim. I did nothing to deserve the punishment I have received. Everything I did was to help others. And all for what? For me to become the very killer that murdered my parents?" I am shaking now. "I. Won't. Go. Back. Never look back. Never..."

**Tesh: **"Oh," a soft sigh escapes my lips. "What did you see...of me?"

**S4S:** I look back at Teshani. "I see someone who wants to make a change for the best, but others lack your views."

**Tesh:** I remain silent and turn back to the horizon.

**S4S: **"I can tell you have seen so much," I say. "But have you felt loss, and known that there was nothing you could do to stop it. You just take it like a punch to the gut?"

**Tesh:** "Loss," I say, "beyond what you might expect. But I will never fully recover." My mind is filled with thoughts of Sazin, Mahshi, and Mathis. "My sister was killed by an Inquisitor. My brother was lost on Scadrial; he could be dead. That was why I was there. A good friend of mine was killed by a Splinter, but you probably don't know what that is, do you? The worse losses are the ones of people close to your heart. And Sazin and Mahshi were as close as you can get.

Sazin was a few years younger than me. Sweetest thing in the world. Last year, I was stabbed, and I died, but Mathis brought my back. I encountered Sazin in the Cognitive Realm. I had a few short seconds to tell and hear everything. And then I was back. Mathis saved my life multiple times, and helped defeat the Splinter. I will fill you in on that soon. And Mahshi is my twin brother. But he was more than a brother, much more..." I trail off and look down at my hands. One is covered in a thin but solid leather glove, which provides a good grip, and the other is thin and tan, covered with calluses from sword practice. And spear. And my daggers. And bow. Many people said I had too much free time.

But it was all to take my mind off life, and the pain it brought.

**S4S: **"You fight on," looking directly at Teshani and into her eyes, "that's what counts." But she said her sister was killed by an Inquisitor. That is what she sees in me: a killer. I grow angry. At the Inquisitor that killed my parents. At my parents for leaving me. At me for existing. "But why?" I stand, demanding, "_Why_ did you ask me to come with you. The very thing that killed your sister, you befriended! WHY?"

**Tesh: **I close my eyes. "I see the good in you." It's true. "The Inquisitor who killed Sazin was an evil creature who had no control over its actions. You do." I pause. "And you remind me of Mathis." I open my eyes and look at Mask.

**S4S: **"You said this Mathis saved you multiple times. I have done nothing but murder those who made me who I am now."

**Tesh:** I stare at Mask in the eyes, or where they're supposed to be. "You do not deserve a second chance. You still need the first." I stand up, walk over to the ledge, and look down.

**S4S: **"Life is one big game of chance," I say as I eye Teshani moving to the ledge of the building. "In order to win, how you play it depends on the cards you are dealt."

**Sami:** Under the dim light, a group of men hunched around a table in a rickety building. Garth - a tattooed guy with three guns at his hip - was dictating to a tall stern-looking woman with a spanreed in front of her, writing furiously. He allowed himself a grin. The money for this job was good and the strange technology that the cloaked man had gifted them with to communicate with him was a big step up from anything they had. He would be rich, after this - and the ones they were hired to kill were no match for his men. He began to snap the orders to take the plan into action - and froze.

A slight shadowed figure stood in the doorway. He frowned. "Who are you, and how -" The figure moved, becoming a sudden blur as his men were suddenly on the ground, knives embedded in their flesh and coins scattered around them. He didn't even get his hand to his gun before he was on the ground as well with a dagger in his chest.

Sam tilted her head at the bodies around her and stepped to the desk where the spanreed was left, continuing to write unattended. _Now let's take a look at this plan of yours. _

**Tesh: **I smile and step off the ledge. A sound of pure joy escapes my lips, and I laugh more than I have in a long time. I fall hundreds of feet before I finally slow myself down. Then I slowly fall back towards the terrace, enjoying every second of my ignorance of gravity.

**Shadow:** I blink. Now it is my turn to be shocked. "Yes. I have heard mention of them. In fact, I studied them closely for a while. But," I sigh, "they proved unable to help me."

"Help you?" Preston asks.

I spread my hands. "My malady. Incorporeality is not the most convenient of existences. Immortality is moot if one cannot do more than study and watch." I shuffled slightly and look away, embarrassed. "Well, that's really all you need to know. Why I'm studying the magics here. I've looked everywhere for an answer. I thought Endowment might be able to return me to a body, but she scoffed at my request. Here on Sel there are ways to become immortal, though I am learning that is not quite the same as returning to the Physical Realm."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix exhaled, clearly relieved. "So you are not with them. Good. They proved to be an unhealthy bunch to hang around for too long, if you get my meaning. I've been around for many hundreds of years, and I'd really prefer to keep it that way. Did you know that I was here when Raoden himself had this library rebuilt? Now that was a man you could respect and follow. As for your malady, there are certain...secret histories that I have managed to get my hands on. There was a cognitive entity on Scadrial, a very famous one I might add, who managed to procure himself a body. I don't recall the process exactly, but if we return to Roshar to retrieve the coppermind where I have stored these histories, perhaps there may be enough clues there to help you. I would normally have such an item with me, but I left in such haste..."

Phoenix sighs audibly again. "Oh dear, this will take me right back to those who I have been trying to avoid. The coppermind we seek is in Urithiru, also the home base of the Knights of the Cosmere... " Phoenix ponders for a moment and thinks to himself that Wilberforce may be the key to find the answers he has been seeking all these years. "All right, let's do this. Will you come with me to Roshar? As an Elsecaller, I'm sure we could make record time to Urithiru."

**S4S: **I watch as Teshani falls off the building. She continues downward, shouting happily as she falls, until she disappears out of my blue vision. But my tin still burns, so I hear the laughter, although I do not see it. How long had it been since I laughed like that? I cannot remember. But I do smile at the joy she feels. I feel as if for now, that's good enough.

**Tesh: **I slowly land on the ledge and dismiss all Lashings. Those few moments of freedom, they were the only way to escape from life. I look at Mask, and it seems like he is smiling. Ani dances around my head in the form of a trail of mist. I can hear her laughing.

"Well," I say, slightly out of breath, but smiling. "Let's go back inside and Varaseel can help me fill you in."

**S4S: **I lose my smile. "Not yet," I say, "you can save filling in for another time. I'll wait here."

**Tesh: **"No," I say. "Please, come in. Vara has brought up some food. And if you are going to stay here, you need to know as much as possible."

**S4S: **I look toward the building."I do not approve of this," I say grouchily, then look to Teshani. "Fine. But if things get uncomfortable, I may just happen to need some 'fresh air'."

**Tesh: **"Thank you. But trust me, Varaseel is a very easy person to be around." I turn and walk through the doorway, up a few flights of stairs, and into the room Varaseel is in, Mask following at a distance the whole way.

**Serce: **Varaseel listens to the song that floats through the air. The tune is upbeat and quick, the type of song that opposes the mood she's in. "Flux," she whispers, her head in her hands. "What is wrong with me?"

"Hmm?" Fluxation had started speaking less and less, replying how he had when she had first seen him.

"When things went wrong after I joined the Surgefinders..." She taps her finger. "I sulked about it for a long time. Then I thought I'd gotten past it, healed at least a little bit, but seeing Tesh again..." Vara sighs.

"You were...confused," Flux purrs.

"I - I was. I still am. I was just wallowing in self pity for so long, ignoring everything else. It seems so clear now; I was ignoring anything that could make me happy. Lord Fluxation Crypticus, I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. Will you forgive me?"

Flux changes rapidly. "But of course!" he says in a dramatic, gentlemanly voice.

Tesh walks in and the Lightwoven music stops in a loud crash at Varaseel's surprise. She stands up quickly, blushing slightly, and Flux goes back into his hiding place.

**Tesh: **"Hi, Vara. This is Mask," I say as I walk into the room, ignoring the strange crash. Mask walks in behind me. I smile at him encouragingly. "He doesn't know much about Roshar, or the cosmere in particular. He's from Scadrial. I was wondering if you could help me fill him in?"

**S4S: **I walk in behind Teshani. Again, an awful sense of discomfort fills the room as I walk in. But I try to slide in unnoticed. Just give Teshani all the attention…

**Serce: **"Scadrial is the place with all the misty metal powers, right?"

Tesh answers affirmatively.

_Wait...Scadrial...metal...the spikes on Mask's body must be Hemalurgy. _Varaseel pushes that out of her brain as quickly as possible. "Of course I can help." She turns to Mask and ignores the spikes for now. "At the beginning of the cosmere there was a god, being, or power called Adonalsium..." She continues on, her fingers tapping less as she explains the cosmere to Mask. It's so weird, so many more worlds with Shards, Splinters, and Investiture. All of a sudden, the view of her life had changed. There was so much more out there…

**S4S: **Varaseel finishes her discussion on the cosmere. I remained quiet most of the time, just listening and not wanting to interrupt. This universe...this cosmere...was there really that much that was hidden from me? Before I met Teshani, I would have thought Scadrial was it. That no one else existed but us in that Shardworld. And other powers like Allomancy and Hemalurgy exist as well? It's mind-bending.

"And where do you come from in this cosmere?" I ask softly, trying to not be intimidating in any way. The way that I got to trust Teshani was through replaying our origins. I hoped to do the same with Varaseel, where she could eventually look past the mask.

**Serce: **"And where do you come from in this cosmere?" Mask asks softly. It was almost creepy, but she got the feeling he was just trying to ask nicely.

"I'm from Roshar, the planet we are currently on." Varaseel thinks about how different it would be compared to Scadrial. Did she even want to know about his planet? She drifted off in thought.

**S4S: **Varaseel explains how this is her home. I nod. She doesn't seem as resentful now, but I can tell she is still uneasy around me.

"I'm sorry if I am making things...awkward," I say quietly. "I can leave now if you need me to." I look to Teshani. Surely they need to catch up on...something?

**Cole: **Cole transitioned back into the Physical Realm on Roshar. In a few hours he moved to the position of the headquarters that the message he intercepted had mentioned. It rose three stories and continued even deeper underground, from the metal lines. Cole had his suspicions on what this group was, but he had to make sure. He sat, tapped hearing, and sat for several hours listening.

Cole was now absolutely sure that this wasn't a group trying to gather Invested people for the purpose of knowledge, but rather to build an army. He heard them speak about carving out the cosmere and destroying it. Cole gripped his sword and began to walk closer to the fortress.

**Serce: **"I think you're fine," Varaseel says politely before turning to Tesh. "Is something wrong on Scadrial?"

**S4S: **I lean back against the wall. Her answer isn't very encouraging, but I stay.

**Tesh: **"Yes," I say. "And storms, it's bad. The Steel Inquisition may have returned." Silence falls. Varaseel stares at me. I nod. "But we can't really do anything until more of the Knights are here. We have a Lightweaver, a Windrunner, and Mask." I turn to him. "What's the extent of your abilities?" I ask.

**S4S: **"Let's just say I can beat anyone at an arm wrestle, and I can Push and Pull on metals," I say, not trying to sound like an insane brute.

**Shadow: **I frown. "Roshar. That was not on my list of things to do. You see, the spren there are not particularly fond of me, due to my meddling in certain events." I nod to Preston. "No offense to present company."

"You were involved in the Shin incident?" Preston says. "I remember that. Even the Cryptics weren't happy with you, and the cultivationspren were particularly wrathful. Haven't seen them like that in an age."

I glance away, suddenly uncomfortable. "I had no idea that planting such a small thought in the young man's mind would lead to such atrocities. I'd hoped...well, there's nothing I can do about it now. You wish me to travel back? Well, I cannot say I'll enjoy the trip. We'll have to avoid the spren civilizations, which isn't easy currently."

**Sami: **Sam narrows her eyes as the spanreed keeps writing. Thankfully she wasn't pressured to respond, as the woman she had just knocked out seemingly wrote already, but she takes the spanreed to read later. She glances around at the weapons and supplies lining the wall and grabs them, intending to take them back to her safehouse when an uneasy thought strikes her. _Where in the storms did a group of _Scadrian _thugs_ _get a _spanreed_? _

Back at her safehouse, she reads the conversation and her heartbeat betrays her. Then Sam uses her own spanreed. _Cole, it seems we're dealing with something else. I'll meet you back at the base. _She went to prepare for her long journey to Roshar.

**Tesh: **"Okay," I say, nodding. "Varaseel is a very skilled Lightweaver."

**Phoenix: **"We'll be careful. The spren are only recently becoming active again - the ones who survived the Recreance, at least. Most spren are hung up on that. Just stay away from the inkspren and Cryptics; they remember too much. However, most of those stay near their respective cities in the Cognitive Realm, since they do not wish to intermingle with the other spren civilizations. That should make our trip a bit easier. When you're ready, just let me know. I can use the same method to carry you to Roshar that I use for Preston - it will be safer for you this way and will keep you hidden from other spren until we Elsecall back to the Physical Realm."

**S4S: **"What is this Lightweaving and Windrunning you speak of?" I ask Teshani. These terms are new to me.

**Tesh: **I sigh. This is going to take a while. "I can explain Windrunning fairly well, but it would probably be best if Vara explained Lightweaving," I say. "Anyway, we might want to start with some history."

**S4S: **Tesh explains Windrunning, which also explains her unrealistic Pushes and Pulls back in our first encounter. Then Varaseel explains her Lightweaving. Lightweaving...could it?

"Can you perform some of this Lightweaving?" I ask Vara, trying not to sound intrusive. I watch as she hesitantly places her hand out. At first, nothing is there. I wait, but still nothing appears. All I can see is her blue outline in a world of black. "Thank you," I say after a few moments of nothing. I can't keep all of the disappointment out of my voice, though. I just can't see her Lightweaving. It sounded amazing, though. The ability to create illusions from the thoughts of the mind? Extraordinary. But not if you can't see its beauty.

Will I ever see the blue sky again? Grass that they say is now green? A yellow flower? I'd never seen one, yet everyone said they were beautiful. I want to rip out my eye spikes. I want to experience life to the fullest. That's all I ever want, and all I want for others, but this wish is no longer mine. Yet with Teshani's laugh earlier, just knowing someone else was happy gave me some happiness as well. Only a fraction of that happiness stays.

**Tesh: **I watch as Mask's figure slumps slightly. "I have one more thing I should probably tell you," I say slowly. "I've been to Scadrial before."

**S4S: **I look at Teshani. Her statement brings only a little surprise. But I do realize - people like her kill people like me. It's the way it has always been. I know I would never harm someone who befriended me. I trust Teshani; I am not an Inquisitor, but does she see me as an ally? She admitted to me that she saw me as a killer. She says she sees good in me, but would she just as easily knife me in the back the moment she sees that I'm not a hero? She saw me murder five people. She attacked me because of it. Would she do it again? I don't say anything. All is hidden behind the mask, so I simply nod at her statement.

**Tesh: **"You think I might stab you in the back. I won't unless you give me a good enough reason, and like I said before, you don't deserve a second chance yet. You still need your first." I smile at him, and I understand what he was feeling. After living on the streets for a few months and then being accepted into a family, my siblings wanted to trust everyone, but we didn't know if we could.

**S4S: **Her words provide some comfort, but the strong bond of trust that she had showed before is slightly dimmed at that bleak thought of betrayal. She states she lives by honor. Perhaps in word, but what of deed?

**Tesh: **I can still sense his discomfort, and I sigh. "Well, I'm going to contact Celia. Hope I don't have to save her life. Again. Seriously," I say, turning to Mask. "A while ago, she somehow got stuck in the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial! I had to go get her. Storms, Cel spells trouble. But we do need her." I turn to Varaseel. "Have you managed to contact any other Knights?"

**Shadow: **I scratch my non-existent neck. "It's been...quite a bit more recent than that." I close my eyes as I wander back through the details. "There was a young Shin man with a few cracks in his soul that I could reach through. I Syphoned - ah, well, maybe I should explain my magic first." I explain Syphon, Shadowmancy, to Phoenix and Preston. The spren looks like he's seen something like this before, but is just as impressed as the Elantrian that I've managed to make an art of it. "This manipulation of ideas," I explain, "helps me to remain undetected in the Cognitive Realm, for the most part. Since I cannot travel to the Physical Realm anymore, I have developed more subtle ways to interact with it. One of these is to reach into the minds of those who have cracks in their souls. The spren do this in more spectacular ways, but I've only been able to master a few basics."

The details spill out in an uncomfortable manner. I want to present my case in the best possible light. I don't want this man, this scholar and potential ally, to think ill of my intent. This story, however, has no redemption in it. "They made him Truthless," I finish with a bowed head. "It means he was cast out from his society, forced by honor to carry out whatever vile deed his parade of masters commanded him. Bear the sins but never be absolved. I watched him serve, committing unspeakable acts. I watched him weep until he had no tears left."

If I had tears to cry, they would be rolling down my cheeks. Somehow my incorporeal form knows that I've cried everything I can. I can't bear to meet Phoenix's gaze, but I can feel it nonetheless. "I watched...everything. Everything I could until the spren took notice of me and nearly destroyed me. I escaped back here and returned to what I do best - studying the cosmere, far away from anyone to whom I can bring such misery. Go back? To see what I brought about by my capricious meddling in the minds of men?" I clench my fists and turn away. "I don't have the heart to face such things."

**Sami: **Sam translated onto solid ground with sunlight shining into her eyes. She turned, blinking. She was in Roshar. She was out of infused spheres, so she pulled out her coins and began to make her way toward the base. Hopefully Cole would be there.

**Cole: **Cole tapped massive amounts of weight, then Pulled the solid steel doors off their hinges. He jumped to the side just before the giant doors crashed where he would have been. Inside the fortress around forty people sat, looking stunned, before quickly moving into action. Two blurs rushed out of the fortress, right at Cole.

Two gunshots were fired so close together that they seemed like one. Cole's head suddenly exploded, and he fell backward. The three steel Compounders sighed in relief, but that relief lasted only a second. Cole rapidly regenerated, then tapped speed to match the Compounders. Concerned, they summoned Shardblades, only taking an instant with their beating heart moving at the same speed as their bodies. Cole had expected them to have a few Shardblades, and giving them to the fastest was a good choice. He raised his own blade to deflect the Shards. The first brought his Blade down in a vertical slash, fully expecting it to shear through the sword and Cole.

When the Shardblade slid off of Cole's shortsword, the Compounder's eyes went wide with surprise, just before Cole followed up with a thrust through his chest. The second tried to run away, but Cole whipped a dagger at him at unimaginable speeds. The dagger pierced his chest and he fell dead. Cole stopped tapping speed and looked into the fortress. In the perspective of the people in there it looked like only a second had passed, and the strongest of them were dead. They began to attack, trying to deplete his healing as fast as possible. Coins were hurled through the door along with bullets.

Cole ducked to the side, then pulled himself to the roof of the building. When he reached around the middle of it, he summoned his Shardblade and cut through the roof. When he dropped through only three people were still on the third floor. One died to a quick knife throw. Two rapidly fired bullets at him with deadly precision. Cole simply pushed on those back into them. One bullet went back into the shooter's head, and the other into the chest. Both were fatal. The fourth person in the room was a Soother, and tried to make him as calm as possible. What he didn't know was that Cole was perfectly calm, and it had no effect. Cole jumped at him and dispatched them with a quick slash. Cole picked up his knife and began to make his way down the stairs.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix stood in awe, realization dawning on him as to what the man had done. "Your influence over this Shin...you spoke truths to this Shin, didn't you? If my guess is right, you can hardly be blamed for that. Even the spren are now realizing this. It's the stubbornness of the Shin that caused this, not you, friend. However, the spren may not have connected all of this yet. In time, it may soon be once again safe for you once again in Roshar, if at that time you are ready. Know though that there is a war raging in the cosmere, and Roshar is at its center. You could be most useful there. I will go to Roshar alone and retrieve my coppermind, which hopefully can aid you if you are steadfast in your decision. It may be some time before my return, though. In the meantime, the best way you can help is to find out everything you can about our enemy, Odium, and his impact on societies throughout the cosmere. Take this spanreed. If you find anything useful, use it to contact me. I will contact you as soon as I find a means for you to gain a body again, if that is what you wish."

**Shadow: **I find the news only slightly comforting. There's still the issue of the damage he caused. "I have sat still long enough," I say at last. "If you have information that truly can bring me back to the Physical Realm, then I have no reason to hide away safely. I frankly would not be able to concentrate." I look at Preston. "Are you willing to keep my presence a secret from your brethren?"

**Phoenix: **Preston remarks, "Of course. We inkspren care about the things happening in Roshar, and I can clearly see that much of the ire toward you is undeserved, and in addition you are willing to aid in our cause. Your secret is safe with me."

Phoenix, pleased that this kindred intellectual spirit has decided to come after all, smiles broadly. "Well, with all that settled, are you ready to leave? Is there anything you wish to gather first? As I'm sure you know the journey will not be easy, although it is much easier with off-world powers," he notes, glancing at Preston and caressing his metalminds.

**Shadow: **I feel the pockets on my robes and make sure I have my three souls. "I have almost everything I need. There is but one thing more I need back at my study, but I couldn't bring it through the Dor." Motioning to the outside, I pull out the shining orb containing the soul of my ship. "I could show you where I do my research, if you want to come into the Cognitive Realm with me."

**Phoenix: **"All right, then, let's be off! Preferably as far away from Aona's Shardpool as possible, as the danger is imminent there. Just curious, how do you travel through the Cognitive Realm, if you don't mind me asking? Always open to adding efficiencies to my process!"

**Shadow: **I turn my attention to the pounding of energy surrounding me. I'm attuned to it, but it never fully goes away. Like a blazing white light filling my vision, I sense the latent energy surging through my spirit. "I have a few tricks," I saw absentmindedly. "Cross over and I can help you outside. From there I'll take care of transportation."

His transition, assisted by Preston, is annoyingly seamless. It's almost like the Nahel bond creates a perpendicularity itself...something to consider, when I get the time. Preston moves easily through the Dor, but Phoenix is slowed down by his multitude of Investitures interfering.

"Can you store your Breaths away?" I ask. "Even if you just place them in an object, it would make moving easier."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix fills one of his nicrosilminds with his Breaths. "Okay, now what?" Phoenix asks, sounding interested in this new approach.

**Shadow: **I pull out the soul of my ship. "Have you ever been on a ship, Master Phoenix?"

Outside, my ancient friend floats down from the cognitive manifestation of a pillar erected to honor the fallen during the battle for Elantris. He sits on my shoulder, ruffling his feathers and observing my new acquaintances with a jaundiced eye - at least, the symbols that compose his eyes seem more angular and focused. His short head plume lifts up in anticipation.

"This is my friend," I explain to them. "He followed me back from a foray I made to the Drominad system."

"What is he?" Preston asks. "A Splinter?"

I shake my head. "I honestly do not know. He could be related to your kind in some way, but I haven't been able to find any more to study. He might just be a shadow like myself, though how he managed to preserve himself I couldn't say. Friend, this is Phoenix and his companion Preston. We're traveling to Roshar if you care to join us."

He lifts his head and stares me in the face. A general sense of bemusement and approval passes from him, and I pat him on his head. His feathers relax and his head plume assumes its regular gentle curve.

"He seems to like you," I say with a smile to Phoenix and Preston.

Then, reaching into the soul of the ship, I force it to manifest fully. The deck materializes and rises beneath our feet. I pull my hand from the central mast, where the soul of the ship continues to shine, and I touch the front of the sail with one hand while focusing on the boards beneath my feet. "I hope you don't mind heights, my friends."

I Syphon away the idea of pressure from the front of the sail, causing it to billow outward from the force of the Dor on the back. At the same time, I Syphon away the idea of gravity from the ship's hull, and we begin to rise from the ground. Within moments we're skimming over the phantom rooftops of Elantris, heading briskly towards the wall. All around us the city shines with Investiture, the conduit that opens into the Dor to release its latent energy. Moments pass and we leave it behind us, cresting the wall and hurtling outward into the stillness. "This, Master Phoenix, is how I prefer to travel."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix gasps in surprise, delighted. Very little surprised him anymore. Utilizing the Dor's wrath as a tool rather than evading it. It was ingenious. Much sooner than expected, the ship slows, seemingly arriving at its destination. "Do you have another of these cognitive ships lying around anywhere, by chance?" Phoenix asks.

**Shadow: **I wrap my fist around the soul of the ship and try to clear my head. Ancient voices in a tongue long dead spin through my mind. The world that used to be seeps into my thoughts, and I have to focus to pull back from it. Syphoning is not the easiest of magics to recover from. "Just this one, sadly. But she has thankfully lasted for many years." I force the ship to disappear, and we land softly on the ground near the exit of the Dor. "My place is just inside this forest. You may come with me or wait outside. There isn't much to see, but it is my temporary home."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix follows Preston into the forest, gazing around at all of the souls. Mostly fish and other marine flora and fauna, Phoenix notes. They must be deep into the ocean here. "So what is this item you need me to carry for you?"

**Shadow: **I push through the foliage with ease, but I keep Phoenix close behind me so he doesn't get lost. "Not a great deal. Most of what I own are simply the souls of objects. I don't take too many at a time, lest I lose the more valuable ones. There is, however, one item you could help me carry." We enter my sanctum and the light from the Dor pipeline shines brightly, illuminating the space to almost twilight.

The lamp is already in my pocket, as is the fog bank and the ship. I stroll over to my desk and pull out a few real pens, a real inkwell, and some real paper - all true treasures for me. I also pull out a knife from the bottom drawer. My hand goes numb as I handle it, and I quickly place it on the top of my desk. "You may carry this for me," I say to Phoenix. "I'll let you know if I need it, but keep it safe until then, if you please." Lastly, I pull out a spyglass and a large gem that sparkles as it catches the Dor's light. "This can hold a fair amount of Stormlight. I think it could be useful in Roshar."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix marvels at the souls of objects he sees collected here. Antiques, artifacts from other worlds, and many ancient texts. Peering closely, it looked like some texts and scrolls might even predate the founding of Elantris. "Nice place you have here," Phoenix remarks. "Although you could decorate a bit more." Preston looks at Phoenix and rolls his inky eyes. Wilberforce ignores the comment.

He watches as Wilberforce gathers some things from a desk. He notices a shiny glint from what looks like a blade. Wilber drops it quickly, almost as if it is causing him harm to even hold it. "You may carry this for me," he says to Phoenix. "I'll let you know if I need it, but keep it safe until then, if you please." Then he pulls out a magnificent cut gem, bigger than any broam on Roshar. "This can hold a fair amount of Stormlight. I think it could be useful in Roshar."

Phoenix turns the blade Wilber had given him over in his hands. "Silver?" Phoenix asks, glancing at the knife.

**Shadow: **"I am...not certain of its composition. Possibly an alloy of some kind. The whiteness of the blade makes me think that it has to be part aluminum, but I'm not sure what else could be part of it. It is sharp, and holds its edge well. And it has a knack for dispatching unwanted entities. Myself included, unfortunately, which is why I prefer not to use it."

**Phoenix:** "All right, I'll keep the blade for you, though I'm not sure why you would want to keep a thing that presents so much danger to yourself. Are we ready to depart for Roshar? Since we are safely at the edge of the Dor, things should be a _lot_ easier from here on out."

**Shadow: **I nod. "I should hope so. This is where I can travel the fastest, but not necessarily the easiest. Will you be able to transport me? If not, we can use my ship again, but we'll need some Investiture to provide some sort of pressure to move it."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix nods. "Yes, I can take it from here." Phoenix motions to Preston. "Make sure he is in the link when we go." Phoenix steps next to his new friend. "Ready? Off to Roshar!"

**Tesh: **Mask answers my question, and I nod my head. "Perfect. Well, I'm going to go get Celia. Knowing her, she'll be floating around Kharbranth somewhere. Mask, do you want to comes with me, or stay here?" I ask.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix and Wilberforce arrive in his rooms in Urithiru. Or, rather, that was what he intended. Phoenix had worked tirelessly to improve his accuracy at Elsecalling, but sometimes he still missed the mark by a bit. Phoenix and Wilber appeared in a room, and in front of him stood three people, two known to him and one unknown. The one directly in front of him, seemingly gathering up her things, was, of all people...Tesh.

"Um," Phoenix stammered. "Was I summoned?"

Vara was with her. The other was...a Steel Inquisitor? Phoenix rubbed his chin, not frightened at all, and visibly intrigued.

**Tesh: **I see two people appear out of nowhere and summon my Shardblade. "Um...was I summoned?"

I relax when I recognize Phoenix and dismiss my Shardblade. But who is the other with him? "No. Hello, Phoenix. And the same to your companion. What are you doing here?"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix, so enraptured by the marvel that stood before him, did not even hear Tesh at first. For a moment, he even forgot that he was around the group he had been attempting to avoid. Looking up at the steel-eyed man, Phoenix bows formally to the Inquisitor. "Pleasure to meet one of your acquaintance after so long. It has been a while since I have met any other of you than old Ironeyes, but him I've met only in passing. I had not heard that Harmony now approves of Hemalurgy, however. Anyway, my name is Phoenix, and my acquaintance here is Wilberforce. We are on a quest to put scholarship into action and find my dear friend here a brand new body. Sound interesting to anyone?"

**S4S: **I remain silent. I had almost hooked both of these new people at their sudden appearance. But apparently there were other magics to be learned. Teshani trusted them, and they trusted her. So can they be trusted as well? One of them speaks of Ironeyes. I have never heard of this person. A lot can happen when you're locked up, apparently. But the way that he speaks so highly of Hemalurgy...that was almost another excuse to hook him. He didn't know what it felt like.

"I need a moment," I tell Teshani before walking away from the growing conference of new and unknown people. Outside, I store weight and fly off into the darkness and blue lines. I need to gather my thoughts.

**Sami: **Cole was out on a mission and he wouldn't be back for a while. Sam sighed, glancing at Era. "Should I be worried?" she asked. "There's something out there - and it's not good. And the Surgefinders..." That reminded her. She was curious about the new kid - was he broken? Wrecked? Malicious or well intended? Either way, she was rather glad Tesh had taken him in, inconvenience and danger aside. The Surgefinders would be good for him. Tesh, although naive, was encouraging and trusting and honorable - and Sam respected that. She hesitated, and then started out for Urithiru.

**Tesh: **"Wait!" I say as Mask walks out of the door. "Storms! I don't want to go out and find him again. But this is all probably slightly overwhelming." I turn away from the door and study Phoenix and his companion, Wilberforce. "I am sorry, but I can't help you. I'm slightly busy. I need to find Celia, a nearly impossible task, if you ask me, find Mask, find out if the Steel Inquisition really is returning, and if it is put a stop to it." I sigh. "So much to do, so little time. Oh, and I also promised Adolin a duel. He just enjoys beating me."

I walk over the door and lean into the hallway. Mask is nowhere to be seen. I duck back in. "I should probably start checking things off that list. I might also want to find Cole and Samar. I'll be back as soon as possible. Hope you don't mind." I hurry out into the hall to find Mask, Ani sitting on my shoulder. "You'd better be out here, Mask," I mutter under my breath as I jog onto the terrace that we were on earlier.

**Sami: **Sam, careful to stay out of sight, watched the new kid fly out of the building with analyzing eyes. He didn't seem like he was leaving, just needing room. Then Tesh jogged out after him, muttering something under her breath. Sam rolled her eyes. _Hey, give the guy some space_. She considered her options; she had come to catch a glimpse of the Inquisitor Tesh had recruited, but then she caught sight of Phoenix inside with something - or someone - else. She blinked. What was that?

**S4S: **I move through the darkness. I can feel it's night by the cooler temperature. The wind whips at my robes and mask as I fly through the night. So much has been happening. All of this seems like some warped dream. New worlds, new powers, new people. Everything I thought about my world has been shattered. People telling me what is and isn't. What am I to believe anymore?

I breathe the clean air as I fly through the darkness. A large blue form appears in front of me. I Pull on the metal within. A mountain. I touch down, relaxing for the first time in a long while. I lay on the cool rock. Laying on rock brings back memories. But that is something I know well enough. Although I hate it, I can relate to it. I sit up after a few minutes. Now that I am alone, I slowly throw my hood back. Then reaching back, I unfasten my mask. It falls to my lap, the sweat on my face drawing the chill from the mountain breeze.

I grab a handful of blue dust at my side. I then cover the mask with the metal rock bits. I can see my mask now. Although it is blue only, I can still feel an uneasiness when looking at it. But I would rather have them see this than a creature with two spikes through its head. After a moment, I brush the rock away. I sigh as I reattach the mask, before gazing at the stars below my feet.

**Tesh: **I see Mask's form disappear in the distance and break into a sprint. I jump off the edge of the terrace and Lash myself after him.

**Sami: **Sam sees Tesh take off after Mask. _Take a hint, girl! _Giving one glance back at the...thing...beside Phoenix, she shrugs and stands up, Lashing herself at a distance behind Tesh. She wanted to know a bit more about this guy.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix sighed. She rejected his and Wilberforce's request outright without even hearing him out. Wilberforce could be extremely useful to their cause. However, perhaps he deserved the curt response. He did leave them with no word or explanation the last time they had seen each other, out of his own desire for some space. He would talk to Tesh later and apologize. That much, at least, he owed her. But a duel with Adolin? How was that a priority right now? So much else was at stake in the cosmere.

However, he was concerned about an actual return of the Steel Inquisition. Was Harmony actually _that_ distracted to allow such a thing to happen? Whatever the case, the effects of that should be limited to Scadrial. Except, there was an Inquisitor among them. Could he really pose a danger? He seemed friendly enough, but if Inquisitors with not-so-friendly intentions were also worldhopping...Phoenix shook his head. One problem at a time. Perhaps he and Wilber could help Tesh look into this after their quest was completed. Phoenix motions to Wilber. "Come. Let's retrieve my metalminds. My rooms are this way."

**Shadow: **I settle into a pace with Phoenix as we wander the halls of Urithiru. The marvelous rockwork makes me wish my eyes could see it fully in the Physical Realm. "It was strange that they could see me," I mention to Preston. "Normally I'm only visible in the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms. What exactly did he do?"

Preston thinks for a while before responding. "Elsecalling means moving someone from one Realm to another. Even though he couldn't bring you fully into the Physical, there was enough Investiture to make your form temporarily visible. It seems to have worn off a bit."

That relieves me. I don't mind someone taking a peek into Shadesmar and talking to me, but ordinary people...well, I just feel slightly exposed. They might see me as a specter - which I am, but I'm not malicious. I fear that their impression of ghosts might not be all that favorable.

**Phoenix: **After stepping into his quarters, Phoenix begins going through his copperminds to find the one he is looking for. "Ah, here we are. Would you like to hear a story? I don't have the full details, but I'm sure we could piece things together from the information I have."

Phoenix shares with Wilberforce information about Kelsier's survival as a Cognitive Shadow and his current existence as the Sovereign in Southern Scadrial. "The spike in his eye, I think that is the key. Unfortunately, we do not have an Inquisitor spike to help your case. But it does give me some ideas based on my other research. Theoretically, if I can find a body from the Physical Realm and fully enter Shadesmar with said body, we might be able to utilize Hemalurgy with a duralumin spike to staple your Identity into this body, so you can use it without rejection issues. The downside is, the body needs to be alive, or at least alive enough to not have yet severed its Connection to the Physical Realm. So, we need a body no one will miss, perhaps a wanted criminal? Don't worry, once the process is done I believe the body will change on the surface to how you see yourself. Thoughts?"

**Shadow: **I swallow hard. That is not quite what I was planning on. I say so out loud to Phoenix.

**Tesh: **I see a mountain in the distance, and a dark shape on it. Mask. I feel bad for him. But all things considered, he has been handling everything pretty well. I alight next to him, trip, and start rolling down the mountain. Which is very uncomfortable with a sword strapped to your waist. I Lash myself to the mountain and promptly start rolling the other way. Great. I dismiss my Lashing and Lash myself into the sky, then Lash myself downward, so I hover in the air. Looking back up the mountain, I see Mask looking down at me some fifteen yards from where I landed. I slowly travel his way, with one fourth of a Lashing in his direction. I make sure my feet are planted firmly on the ground before dismissing all three Lashings.

"Well, that's never happened before," I say, sitting down next to Mask. I look down at my feet and see that one of my boots is missing, and one of my better daggers, which I have strapped to my leg, has a large chip missing from the handle. At least the sheath will have kept the blade safe. "Great," I mutter, then get up and carefully walk down the mountain to where my boot lays, covered in blue dust. I put it on, and feel a lot of the dust in it as well. "Oh, come on," I moan under my breath. Quickly, I shake all the dust out of my boot and put it back on, where it covers the dagger as it had before. Sighing, I walk up to where Mask sits, head cocked. I sit down and look at the stars. "Definitely a first," I say. Then I start to laugh, thinking of how ridiculous I must have looked.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix sighs. "I'm sorry, friend. I can see how this might unsettle you. But without the direct involvement of a Shard, I'm not sure I see many other options. We could always try going to Sel and soulstamping your Identity if you prefer to avoid Hemalurgy, but again, without something physical to stamp, I'm not sure that it will work."

**S4S: **I watch curiously as Teshani lands in front of me. She seems bewildered after her misstep. That obviously could have gone better for her.

"What do you want?" I ask, somewhat irritated. "Why are you following me?" I left the meeting for a reason. To get away from it all. New people that appear out of nothing. New magic that caused people to roll up mountains and not down. It defies everything. This encounter definitely isn't helping me understand the world any better.

**Tesh: **"Sorry," I say, sensing his annoyance. I really do feel for him. "I just need to talk to you."

**S4S: **I sit up and lean forward, looking outward into nothing. Was I once able to see farther than this? See more colors than just a pale blue on only blackness? That time felt so long ago. Was that even my past, or that of another? "What," I mumble as I drape my hands across my knees.

**Sami: **Sam raises her eyebrows as she watches Tesh rolling down the mountain. Then she starts rolling the other way. Then she bursts out laughing.

Mask looks at Tesh curiously. The annoyance is clear. "What do you want? Why are you following me?"

Tesh walks up to him. "Sorry." she says, "I just need to talk to you."

Sam watches, curious to know how this guy would respond. She recalled the many times she would fly out of Urithiru, just needing space from all the fuss and confines of Urithiru. Perhaps they had more in common than she thought.

**Shadow: **Something physical. It always comes back to that. I have lost what once bound me to that Realm. Reforging the Connection is not going to be an easy task. But I cannot justify taking another man's body. "I lost all Physical ties to the cosmere long ago," I say at last. "But there is always the chance that I'll find another way back. I...I fear that by taking what is not mine, I shall begin down a road from which I cannot return. The souls of things, those I but borrow. Taking some man's life so that I might live is a loathsome thought."

I sit down on a chair and try to clear my mind. Ideas, as always, pester me. The thought that I'm dismissing perhaps my only chance to return to a body comes foremost to my mind. It's false, I tell myself. There is always another way. _That _I learned so long ago that it has become part of my identity. Always another way than the options you see before you. "I'll find another way," I say to Phoenix. "Somehow." I stand up and smile. "In the meantime, I want to see if you can get my form to appear in the Physical Realm again. That was something I've not experienced in a long time."

**Tesh: **Ah, how to say this without making his head explode? "Well, I know someone we need to help us. Her name is Celia, and I need to find her; I was wondering if you would come with me." I glance at him, then quickly look back at the small rock I'm holding in my hand.

**S4S: **This is not what I came here for. "Why do you need me," I ask, "when this Celia is your friend? Not mine."

**Tesh**: "But the cosmere belongs to all of us."

**Sami: **Sam frowned for a moment. _How does a personal mission such as going after Cel relate to the cosmere? And why does she need Mask's help when she can easily do it herself? _

**Phoenix: **Phoenix nods. "I understand. I respect your views. Perhaps there is yet another way. We are learning more about the cosmere each day. The spren on this world are able to manifest themselves physically after making a Connection to a potential Knight. This is evidence that there may yet be a possibility for you without the need to take a body, as your state is very much like a spren. If we could only solve the Connection problem and somehow give you the ability to heal yourself, then the body could simply be recently dead. If that isn't too morbid for you, that is. And I'm rambling again. You want to Elsecall? Where shall we go?"

**S4S:** "This world isn't mine," I say angrily to Teshani, "it's yours. _You_ dragged me into this, offering to help me. But what have you done about it?" I turn on her as I stand to my feet. My muscles tighten up. My breathing slows. "Tell me one thing you have done to help me," I say, raising a finger, "_One thing, _and I will take it all back." I stare at her. A faceless blue outline of one who calls me a friend. But all she has done so far is tell me that nothing is as it seems. "You say you live by honor. I see no deed by which you obey this ideal. I am returning to Scadrial. _My world_."

**Sami:** Sam freezes. Something is wrong - something sparked her senses. Her instincts flare and she spins around, drawing her knife and coming face to face with a cloaked figure.

**Tesh:** I look at him, and a slight remnant of the sadness that plagued me so often the previous year touches my soul. "I'm sorry," I whisper. I stand up and look at Mask. "I'll leave you alone now. Come back to Urithiru when you are ready to leave." I start walking down the mountain, and suddenly, I realize the truth of his words. I turn around and say to Mask, "I am sorry. I should have never even asked you to come with me. I should have never even have gone to Scadrial. I guess the only reason I did ask you was because you reminded me of an old friend." I turn and start walking down the mountain again.

Suddenly, I stop in my tracks. "Oh, storm it!" I turn around again, and look up at the forlorn figure. "Mask, we need to go _now._ Well, at least if you want to live." I had spotted a highstorm in the distance. And we're miles from Urithiru.

**Cole: **When Cole came down the stairs, eight bullets slammed into his chest. He ducked to the side and hurls a dagger at one of the shooters. The knife flew into their chest, the deadly accuracy produced by the increased mental speed that Cole has been tapping. Cole moves into close range and and dispatched the rest with his blade. Now that the second floor was clear, Cole readied himself to burst down the stairs. He heard shouts and people assembling. They must have heard his previous fight. Allomantic lines alerted him to massive amounts of metal being situated near where the stairs came out. Cole smiled and realized there was an easier way to go about it then falling into an obvious trap.

Cole Pushed on the floor. He began to lift up. Then he taps weight and Pushes the solid steel floor down. All metal sources underneath stop moving. Cole drops down and summons his Shardblade, then cuts a hole down into the basement. Something tells him that if there is anything important, it will be there. After Cole comes out of the now decimated fortress, he begins to head back to the Horneater Peaks.

**S4S: **I turn away from Teshani, moving opposite the way that she begins to walk. I won't go back. "I will find my own way," I say gruffly as I walk up the mountain face. Then more softly, "I am sorry I am not your old friend." Burning pewter, I run up the mountain, against the wind. Never turning back…

**Tesh: **"I will find my own way. I am sorry I am not your old friend."

I turn back. "So be it." I turn around and become one with the wind.

I stop at Urithiru only long enough to grab my pack. I ignore my friend's words as I walk out of the room. I say I live by honor; I dragged him into this. He sees no deed by which I obey that ideal. I see no deed by which I obey that ideal. Mathis's lifeless face smiling up at me…the Inquisitor throwing Sazin against the wall, snapping her neck...Mahshi's look of horror…Me running away, leaving them…A tear slides down my face, but I wipe it away and push the others back. I won't let memories ruin my life. I can still help the cosmere. But I don't want to anymore. I have done nothing to help the cosmere.

**Shadow: **"Just here is fine," I say. "I just want to see how your ability can Invest me enough to manifest physically. If it works well enough, I might be able to actually do something without needing a body." I have seen spren who are able to affect the world in small ways after forming a bond. This is a long shot, to be sure, but it feels promising.

**S4S: **I move across the mountains of blue, the veins of Allomantic lines lighting my way. No other light illuminates the path before me. I don't even remember the pure white of the blinding sun. It hurt having to leave Teshani like that. But her world is not mine. I am not one of her Knights. I was never one of her priorities. Was I ever her friend? I know who I am.

The wind pushes hard against me. I tap weight as I walk forward. Pewter pushes me on. Soon I peak the rock and look past the mountain, finally getting a full view. Ahead, a fuzzy mass of blue rushes towards me. Many look oblong and large like massive rocks. The wind pushes harder now, solidifying my theory on the incoming boulders. Teshani said this was a highstorm. She seemed afraid of it. Do I take her word for it?

Unlatching my hook from my waist, I Push it upward to the sky. At its apex, I Pull with steel and pewter, and Compound weight all at once. The hook streaks down from above and crashes into the mountain, chain vibrating at the impact. The wind howls in my ears. I then step back until the chain goes taunt. Falling to the mountain on one knee, I continue Compounding weight. The rock crunches beneath my feet at the strain.

The blue mass charges up the opposite side of the mountain. I ready my steel as the storm approaches. The wind is deafening now. I Push on the rocks incoming towards me. They bow outward away from me slightly; then the stormwall hits.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix links with Wilberforce and Elsecalls into Shadesmar. They stand upon a floating, portable island which Phoenix has made handy close by. "All right, now back we go." After Elsecalling back into Urithiru, Phoenix does note seeing a glimmer of Wilberforce through his normal vision, almost like an apparition. "Indeed, this is interesting."

Upon re-appearing in Urithiru, Phoenix hears the distant roar of an approaching highstorm. "I have an idea! You don't have a Connection to the Investiture in this world, but I do, and during Elsecalling I briefly Connect with you. First, we would need to go out into that storm - protected, of course. Then, when the Stormfather appears and dispenses his Investiture, I will take in all the Stormlight I can possibly hold, and then we will try our Elsecalling trick again. It might be just enough to trick this world into thinking you have a Connection to the Physical, since you will be carrying more Investiture in the Physical Realm, albeit briefly, than you would otherwise. But then we would need to quickly do something - while you are solid enough - to rewrite your Identity as having a body, to make your state permanent. What do you think? Want to experiment?"

**Sami: **Sam moves without thinking. Instinct takes over, and her knife is suddenly buried in the man's abdomen. He falls with a silent gasp. She blinks. _What was that? _Had she gotten that used to retaliating? Without even stopping to find out who he was? She draws her second knife and moves cautiously to the man's side, when something makes her pause. Looking up, a dark stormwall in the distance. A highstorm? She is _not_ prepared for this.

She starts to launch off, and then hesitates, looking at the man. He's wounded. If he has help, he might make it. _Really, Sam? You've killed so many people and now you care about what might happen to a common man who might have been there to attack you? _

NO! She might have killed and seen many killed, but she was not a monster. As Urithiru was not an option, she slung the unconscious guy over her shoulder and flew towards the mountains. Hopefully she would find some shelter there.

Sam hurtled towards the cliff face. Summoning her Blade, she chopped out a small opening. Then, setting the man down and crawling in, she cut upward and inward, creating a small closet-looking depression behind it. She was about to dig in more when she noticed the stormwall coming, with only seconds to spare. It would have to do. Grabbing the guy and shoving him through the hole, she dove in - just as the storm hit.

**Shadow: **"That...sounds like an interesting thought." I rub my chin, imagining what it would be like. "I can hold a brief bond with you through Elsecalling. If, perhaps, we use enough Stormlight to make a permanent connection to the Physical Realm, would I then become bound to you? Or bound to Roshar?" There is much to consider, and I have so little time to decide. The storm is approaching, bringing with it the Splinters of old and a vast amount of Investiture. Moments to decide, minutes to prepare. "Say I become able to manifest physically again. I doubt I would be more than a faint image. I would also probably need regular Investing to stay alive."

Would it be worth it? I smile. "Let's give it a try. If all that exists is either matter, energy, or Investiture, then I should think this a viable solution to my problem, halfway though it may take me."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix and Wilber Elsecall to a nearby mountain range to the east, to the side facing westward. Phoenix takes out the gem Wilberforce had had him carry during the trip and sets it out to receive Stormlight. His other spheres along a lowered chain at Urithiru should capture the Investiture from the storm as well. As the stormwall hits, Phoenix marvels at the beauty and grace, yet fierce intensity of the windspren as they dance throughout the storm. He wonders why he had not yet been out in a highstorm before this. What an incredible opportunity for scholarship. After a while, the rains suddenly stop and an immense face, presumably the Stormfather, appears in the cloud. Phoenix hears a voice in his mind, as clear as if it had been spoken aloud.

YOU ARE NOT A CHILD OF THIS WORLD, SON OF DEVOTION, OF AONA. YET YOU COME WITH PURPOSE. YOU WOULD AID THIS CHILD OF AMBITION?

"Yes," Phoenix responds. "We need all the strength we can to fight evil. This one lacks strength in his current state."

YES, HE HAS SHOWN HONOR. HE HAS REFUSED TO SACRIFICE OTHERS TO MEET HIS DESIRES. BUT KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT WIN AGAINST EVIL. IT IS TOO LATE.

"Please! You are his only chance to become an asset to this world, to the cosmere again."

Silence. The pause seems to drag on for what seems an eternity, before finally the voice speaks again. LINK WITH HIM AND COME TO MY REALM.

They appear in Shadesmar on Phoenix's island so they don't immediately sink into the lake there.

The Stormfather speaks. RECEIVE FROM ME.

As the Stormfather departs, they Elsecall back to their mountain refuge. Phoenix doesn't notice any change. But to his right, Wilberforce is glowing even brighter than the newly infused gem on the cavern floor, and is clearly visible to the naked eye.

**Shadow: **The Investiture hits me like a felled tree. My form comes alight with energy, and the Stormlight begins warring within my form, nearly overwriting my Identity. _Shadowmancy...the art of manipulating shadows...shadows like me._

I can feel the ideas that the Stormfather carries. Honor. Oaths. Commitment. Order. I feel them pounding against my mind. I can also feel the link that Phoenix made with me, giving the Investiture purchase upon my soul. Before when I visited Roshar the storm only raged against me, fighting to get inside. Now it is fighting from within. It is like I have drunk from the Dor, but a thousand times more powerful.

I'm so busy fighting against the power, striving so desperately to keep my mind, that I do not notice when the storm passes. It must have been hours or longer, but it seemed like mere moments to me. The Splinters are gone, as are most of the spren. The earth is wet, and light has returned to the sky…the sky. The earth!

Trembling with excitement, I take in the sights around me. I still see the shadowed world of Shadesmar, but now I can see into the Physical world as well. Every soul is visible to me now, not just the one I focus on. "It worked," I whisper. "I don't have a body, but...but I have a Connection again!" I spin and look at Phoenix, who looks supremely pleased with himself. "How do I look?" I demand.

**Serce: **Phoenix, Tesh, and Mask had moved all around that room and Varaseel had gone unnoticed. Tesh had even come back and grabbed a pack, but was obviously distracted. Vara sits, looking down at Flux. "Hmmm," she thinks aloud.

"Hmmmm," Flux responds.

"What should we do now?"

They sit in silence, waiting for something unexpected to happen.

**Phoenix: **"Yes," Phoenix marvels. "Yes, you do have a Connection to the Physical now. Now the body part shouldn't be so difficult. But we do have a time limit. Just as Stormlight eventually runs out of spheres, it will likely drain from your pseudo-body as well. Now that you have this temporary Connection to the Physical, I think we can use the Dor to finish the rest. All we need to do is create a Dor program that 'rewrites' you as having a body. Since you previously owned a body, I don't see this as being an issue. However, you cannot use Selish magic as you have no line to the Dor. This magic relies heavily on getting the Identity as accurate as possible. So, in summary, I will need to get to know you _very_ well over the next week or so to get the end result we desire. So, let's start from the beginning, shall we?"

**Sami: **Sam spent the storm treating the guy's wound as best she could with her limited resources and sharpening her knives. She had not managed to deepen the hole because there was nowhere to put the excess stone, so she and the unfortunate man were cramped the whole time. When the guy had come to, she had given him a sleeping draught that would knock him out for another couple of hours.

The storm passed. Sam crawled out into the drizzling rain, relieving her cramped muscles. She glanced up the slope - and caught sight of another figure. _Mask. _

**S4S: **A slight breeze flows across the mountains. The last blows of the highstorm now sigh of its mighty power. The rocks are wet with the still falling rain, bringing a level of humidity to the surreal landscape. A slight fog covers the ground, falling through the valleys and crevices of rock. One of the mountains holds an intruder on its peak. One who doesn't belong here. A wanderer of worlds who longs for home.

I brace the ground on one knee, one hand down for support, the other holding to the chain with an iron grip, remaining there long after the storm has ended. Teeth clenched and muscles taunt, I can still feel the wind pulsing and rocks smashing against me, beating me into submission. _You do not belong here,_ the storm seems to say. Did I actually hear those words in the roaring rain?

Time passes. The light rain continues to fall, mixing with the streams of blood flowing from the lacerations on my body. The wind numbs the wounds and mind of my crouched figure. How much time passes is void, but the rain still falls when I finally rise. Without a word or thought, I walk forward, not remembering to cut my weight to normal. Each step cracks the rock underfoot. I walk to my hook, ripping it from the ground at my weight. It drags behind me as I move. A trail follows me; one of shattered rock and blood, another of thoughts. But soon all trails disappear. Weight now subconsciously returned to normal, blood slowed to only smears on my body, mind shallow and fogged as the mountains around me.

One step. One step. East. Never. Turn. Back. _I won't go back… _

**Sami: **Sam landed behind Mask. His forlorn figure seemed to drag, one step mindlessly after another. She spoke, her clear voice cutting through the silence. "Mask."

**S4S: **I stop. The clinking of chain on rock now ceases. I turn slightly at the mention of my name. At first glance and first listen, I thought it was Teshani. But a second take on the figure gives a new opinion. This newcomer has a different air about them. In my mood, I would say cocky and arrogant. I tighten my grip on my chain.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix peers out of the cavern and sees two figures in the distance, seemingly squaring off at each other. One is the Inquisitor from earlier, and the other is...is that Sam? Phoenix looks over to Wilber. "We will need to leave soon. But I want to talk to the Inquisitor and Sam first. I would wait here; I think we frightened the Inquisitor the first time we appeared together. By his actions, I do not think he is all as he appears."

**Serce: **"Nothing exciting ever happens when you try to expect the unexpected," Varaseel sighs. She grabs a book about the cosmere and begins reading out loud to Flux.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix appears in front of Mask and Sam. He nods in her direction. "It's been a while." Phoenix turns back to Mask. "I do not believe we were properly introduced. I did not intend to frighten you on our first meeting. I am an Elsecaller, and I can travel very fast over long distances to where I want to go. I am also a scholar by nature, and was genuinely curious about seeing one of your...condition again after so long. But I am not always socially graceful about such things. Please accept my apologies. I am Phoenix, of a place called Elantris on another world called Sel."

Phoenix just now becomes aware of the tension in Mask's posture after being confronted by first Sam, and now Phoenix. "Oh dear. My timing is just not good today. Truly, I mean you no harm." Turning back to Sam, Phoenix asks, "So what have you been up to lately? I see they managed to get that Splinter out of you."

**S4S: **I scowl under my mask at the newcomer. His attitude towards me is lighthearted. I hate it. He is no better than Teshani at his thoughts on the cosmere. He may have chosen to come to this new world. Not me. I never wanted this. Any of it. I turn and walk away, my knuckles white.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix sighs and turns back to Sam. After Mask is gone, he whispers, "What's with him?"

**Sami: **Sam stepped after Mask quietly, far enough behind not to invade on his personal space. "I know you never wanted any of this," she says quietly, "I know that feeling of wanting to simply shut out everything, and if you simply want to leave I can help you get back to Scadrial. But if you could delay for a bit, I'd like to talk to you."

**Phoenix: **Sam ignores Phoenix and goes after Mask. Maybe she would try to get through to him. It seemed he needed someone with more empathy than himself. Phoenix was careful not to empathize, though he was concerned for the man. The problem with empathy was that it forced you to be vulnerable. Being vulnerable brought old pains to the surface. Of feeling death over and over again, by so many ways, yet unable to actually die. Phoenix cringed inside. Stop. Enough. Even thinking about being vulnerable risked bringing those old memories back to the surface. Alone again, Phoenix returns to the cavern with Wilberforce. There is still work to be done. "Sorry about that. I thought I saw an old friend, but they were preoccupied. Let me know when you are ready to return to Sel."

**S4S: **I tighten up at how she says she knows everything. Although I hate to admit it, it's the truth. I do want to get back home, to the one thing I know. But she speaks on a personal level to me. She seems to understand, but so did Teshani. But better these thoughts and opinions than that of the other man, who looks at me as an experiment. I continue walking, but I do think over the matter. This newcomer knows how to return to Scadrial. Is that enough of a reason to trust her? If she can get me back, she is probably the same as Teshani. And Teshani promised to help me. Would this new person and up doing the same? "I don't even know who you are," I reply coldly. I really don't want to be held back again.

**Sami: **Sam smiles slightly. "You might call me a simple person with a purpose. Like Teshani, I am committed to helping to protect my home. However, unlike her, I am not bound by honor. I have respect for those who hold to it, but honor has gotten me nowhere." Sam's face tightens slightly. "I am not going to pretend that I know of everything you've been through, but I can see that you are carrying pain - probably more than any of us have ever experienced. That leads me to respect you, to know that you have been through that sort of life and still held on.

If you would like, I can help you get back to Scadrial in a couple of hours, after I have dealt with some things. Or you can leave and find your own way. Or you can stay with us, or at Urithiru with Tesh. Whatever you wish. Tesh is a good person. She may be a little misled, but she is honorable, and will keep her word. If you go back, all I ask is that you will tell her to be prepared. Something is coming, and I don't want them to be caught unprepared again."

**S4S: **I stop and turn on the newcomer. I burn pewter; again, it's instinctive. But this time I do not notice. "Do not play games with me. I ask who you are. You give me nothing. You say you do not live by honor. How am I to trust you that you can get me back to Scadrial?" Everything that has happened has begun to cave in. My anger is almost over its threshold. I hold myself back from hooking the new woman right now.

_But I am not one of them. _I am not a killing machine. Bent by anger, bent for destruction, bent like metal to obey the whims of masters above me. I do not kill without cause. I do not seek destruction. I have no master. I am a man. _Let them see that. _I stop burning pewter and sigh as I replace the hook at my waist. Teshani said I still had a chance. I'll take it. "Swear by me that we will return to Scadrial," I whisper, "and if you cannot, you should leave. I do not have time for this."


	3. This Narnia Music Is Great

**Phoenix: **Suddenly, Wilberforce disappeared. Phoenix frowned and Elsecalled to the Cognitive Realm. "Wilberforce?" Phoenix calls, but with no response. Where could he have gone? Phoenix sighs. So much effort put in to helping the man, and now he had lost him. The good thing was, he'd made a Connection to the man from their experience with the Stormfather. Chances were that Wilber would turn up again at some point.

Phoenix Elsecalls back to the Physical Realm and gets the shining gem, then Elsecalls back to Urithiru. Time to gather his things. He no longer has a purpose here. Tesh did not appear to welcome his presence at all earlier, which further reinforced his feelings of resentment toward her. Varaseel. He had completely forgotten her earlier during his initial encounter with the Inquisitor. He would check in with her her first. Later, perhaps he would try to find Sam again. He had connected with her before. Also, he hoped she would be able to help this Inquisitor somehow.

His things ready, Phoenix walks into the room Vara had been in earlier. "Hello, Vara. Sorry for not greeting you earlier. My scholarly side distracted me a bit too much with the Inquisitor being here. How are you? Have you recovered from the incident with the Splinter?"

**Tesh: **A faint breeze...several windspren...rock stretching in all directions...a small trickle of water...I sigh and sit up. I sit in the middle of a plateau. I had weathered the highstorm out in a small cavity in a chasm wall. I'm stiff, as I had slept on the hard rock. The faint light of early dawn painted the horizon. I stand up, and swing my pack on my back. I start walking in the direction of the Unclaimed Hills. The minutes stretch into hours as I walk, easily falling over chasms, and walking over plateaus. The sun is well over the horizon now. Urithiru is completely gone from sight.

**S4S: **_Spark dances through the Shattered Plains, weaving in and out of the chasms that make this land. Joy radiates from her as she moves across the land in large sweeping patterns, diving down into the dark crevices before rising up to the sky again, like a small sun. She dances alone. Free and young. A moment of silence and happiness. _

_Then a strong gust of wind rips from behind her. Although she is a spren without solid form, Spark can almost feel the surge of power, the air stream pushing her forward. At the front of the sudden burst of breeze, a small spren, the color of steel in the form of a shining ball of light, sprints ahead of her. He had always loved speed. _

_The streak of steel light races ahead, before stopping one plateau over. It then stops, before zipping around in a small diameter. Constantly moving, giving an air of impatience. More joy with a slight tint of annoyance radiates off her as she sweeps toward him. She rotates around the gray spren momentarily before spinning away and continuing on._

_Spark soon realizes that the spren is no longer behind her anymore. She turns back to see the steel orb flash across the plains southward. She could never keep up with him. But she would always catch up. Sooner or floats and bounds across the plains after the spren happily. He was always direct with his thoughts and actions, as evidenced by his sudden action. But she saw herself as the one to slow him down, for him to see the beauty of eternity._

_It took some time, but Spark finally catches up with him. She noticed the spren on a plateau. But the steel orb has stopped moving. He doesn't even bound up and down like normal. Complete stillness. And he isn't alone. On the plateau is another figure. One that Spark remembers. He had asked her to watch out for them when he left. She remembered this one._

_Tesh…_

_**Mathis watched as Tesh moved across the Shattered Plains. Seeing her again brought back memories. Some were good. Most were good. But sadness also fell on him. Memories of pain at the sudden loss of his friends. Him falling into the Purelake, a smile as his last action to the world. But he knew they would be fine. He always had. They were always stronger than he was, Tesh especially. She has brought him out of his insanity that night at Urithiru. She showed him what he truly was. She has given him the strength to keep running.**_

_**But something was wrong. Tesh no longer showed the light nor fight that she once had. She walked slower. Her head hung down lower than before. He could tell a weight was on her shoulders. He had felt that before. And she had been there to drag him out of darkness. She had saved him.**_

_**Mathis turns to Spark. She's just caught up after his detour. She seems troubled, but also understanding. She did the same for him. She has given him the purpose to keep running. It was all for her. Spark remembered him. Mathis remembered her. She had given him strength. Could the same be done with Tesh?**_

_**With a quick flash, he flew in front of Tesh, pulling the winds behind him. He began to circle her, moving faster; dust and rock began to fly outward. Then he stopped right in front of her. And using all of his will, he revealed himself to a world that had forgotten him… **_

**Serce: **Vara looks in surprise at Phoenix for a while. How long has it been? And how could he ask 'How are you? Is the Splinter thing all figured out?' so directly? She had imagined the first time talking to the others being completely awkward and confusing, but Phoenix had gotten straight to the point. "Mostly," Varaseel says truthfully. "I'm good. What have you been doing?"

**Tesh: **A breeze blows around me, far from normal. It slowly picks up speed, circling around me, faster and faster, rocks flying outwards. And something feels different. Different, but familiar. Something I lost a time ago is back. I can't put my finger on it. The wind stops, and the dust that had been kicked up settles back down. And _something, someone_ appears. Someone I know. "Mathis," I whisper, not believing my eyes. "_How?_"

**Phoenix: **"Glad to hear you are well. I've been researching the cosmere mostly, but more recently I have been trying to find a way to get a kindred spirit back to the Physical Realm. It has been a challenging endeavor for certain, but overall satisfying. However, I seem to have lost him." Phoenix's voice deflates a bit. "But hopefully this setback is temporary. Last time I saw him, he was glowing like a sun from Stormlight, then just disappeared. The worst part is, we were beginning to become good friends. Before, I thought I had friends here, too, but now I am not sure how many of those were true. You know, it is not always so easy for an academic such as myself to be fluent in all the social graces. I do not make friends easily."

**Serce: **Vara looks sympathetically at Phoenix, not knowing what to say.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix sighs. "I don't expect you to understand. I just needed to vent to someone. Thank you for listening. By the way, whatever happened to Cole? Last time I saw him, he betrayed us and seemingly allied with the Splinter. Did you all take him out?"

**Serce: **"Cole is still alive and doing whatever he is doing. I don't know anything else," Varaseel says. "And Phoenix..." she pauses for a long, awkward second. "I won't pretend I understand what you feel like, but I'm sorry. I hope that I can help someday."

**S4S: **_**Mathis floats around Tesh in a circle slowly so the wind doesn't pick up. He had so much he wanted to say, but hadn't been able to. But when he tried to speak, no words came out. It was only expressions or feelings he could portray. The same way as Spark, when he was alive...Confusion...PANIC…**_

_**Mathis looked around and saw Spark was still there. He had been really worried about that. The possibility that she could disappear again was a huge concern. But the fact that she remained was comforting. Mathis turned back to Tesh ...Happiness… concern...happiness… **_

**Tesh: **I feel small ripples of emotion coming from the spren - Mathis. A thought comes to my mind. "I wonder..." I disappear into the Cognitive Realm.

Mathis appears in front of me. Standing, as though he were still alive. "Mathis...how?" I choke. There has been so much tension lately, that seeing my friend standing in front of me is almost too much to bear.

**Sami: **Sam nods, no surprise on her face. "Fine. I swear that I will return you safely to Scadrial." She turns. "We will start in about an hour, as I need to take care of some things on Roshar first."

**S4S: **I nod. Obviously she already knows my name. How comforting that is...well...not very. "You still haven't given me a name," I reply roughly as we begin walking again.

_**I watch curiously as Tesh seems to...fade out. The Cognitive Realm. **_**And after all I did to get here,** _**I think with a smile. After a moment, I appear back in the Cognitive Realm. The same place that I last saw Tesh. The final goodbye. But there are no true goodbyes. Only new beginnings.**_

_**It takes me a moment to notice that I actually possess a body again. It surprises me. I see the same colorless cloak on my shoulders once again. It is then that I realize that this is how Tesh remembered me last. That was why I could see Rachel when I...died…I am nothing more than a thought that can be seen. Rachel had told me how that worked. At least, in the Cognitive.**_

_**"Mathis...how?" Tesh asks.**_

_**I smile, something that uses to be a rarity with me. She is obviously in shock that I am still alive. "I kept running," I say, "because I knew if I didn't, you'd find me and haunt me the rest of time." I laugh. Even more of a rarity. Something I don't think I ever did while alive. "It's good to see you again, Tesh..." **_

**Sami: **"Sam." Sam glances at him curiously. "What do you do in Scadrial?" She turns and yells out, "Phoenix!"

**S4S: **Sam yells out to call for someone. Is it the same scholar as before?

"Nothing at the moment," I respond to Sam's question, "as I am not there to do anything presently. But I do have work that needs to be done, if that is what you're asking me."

**Phoenix: **Phoenix turns away from Vara. "Thanks for the talk. Perhaps I am overblowing things. You do seem to care, at least. Well, goodbye. I'm going to see if I can find someone." Vara nods as Phoenix turns and leaves the room.

Phoenix taps tin, expanding his senses, thinking Sam has to be within a few miles. He hears her talking to Mask. _Ah_, Phoenix thinks to himself. _Good. I'll give her some time then. _Just as he stops tapping, however, he hears her call for him. "Phoenix!" He guesses he's needed after all. He hopes he won't accidentally anger the man any further.

Phoenix appears about twenty yards away from Sam and Mask. "Sam, did I hear you call? How can I help?"

**Tesh: **"It's good to see you again, Tesh."

"And you," I say. "I really need someone to talk to, someone who understands."

**S4S: **_**I laugh as I sit down on the ground. I notice Rachel some distance away, in the form of her silver orb, giving some private space. She always understood.**_

_**"I don't know how much of a help I'll be in that field," I say, settling down, "as I remember you were the one that had that special touch of understanding." So much changed with Tesh. It was almost a reversal of roles. When I have finally seen happiness in the world, Tesh seems to have lost sight of it. "But," I add, raising a finger before she continues, "I will do what I can, as a dead man." I smile and shrug at that regard. I should be dead. Not yet though.**_

**Tesh: **A smile slowly creeps across my face, and I sit down as well. I tell him everything that has happened lately, and how I finally realized the truth about myself.

**S4S: **_**I sit back and inhale, which translates to my body, or at least how my mind perceives it. "Tesh, I want you to understand something," I begin. "I have been through what you have. Not all of it, in exact detail, in the same way, but I have experienced sadness. The want, almost the **_**need**_**, to end it all. To give up, put your load down one last time." I look directly at Tesh. "But if you have not experienced sadness, then what do you make of the good times? The answer is nothing, because there would be no good times. There is day, but there is also night. You just need to move on, knowing that sometime, in some way, the sun will rise."**_

_**I look down at my Cognitive body, remembering my time while I was a being of flesh and blood. I close my eyes as I remember. "You were so much better than I ever was. Even now, in your darkest hour of night, you rise above me higher than I could ever hope to reach. Because of this, I cannot help pull you out of this..." I turn back to Tesh, looking directly into her eyes. "...but I can push you to keep rising higher." I smile at that remark. "After all, I am a Coinshot. I know how to Push."**_

**Tesh: **Silence falls, and I notice a faint flicker of movement. Mathis's spren. "How is your spren here?" I ask.

**Cole: **Cole arrives at the Horneater Peaks. The base carved into the rock had taken years to finish; it was only after that he had finished that he had gotten his Shardblade. Many strange things he had found over the years were laying around. A huge gemheart lay on a table, a remnant of the time he ran into a chasmfiend. Cole doesn't sense Sam in the base - she must be on a mission.

**S4S: **_**I look up at Rachel. She backs up a bit more now that she's been noticed. She clearly doesn't want to be brought into this. "It took me some time to figure that out. But it's the same reason you can see me now." **_

_**Tesh gives me a quizzical look. **_

_**"I remember her," I continue, "and she remembers me. And I remember you, and obviously you remember me. It's like a chain. Everything is Connected." I specifically don't go into detail about Rachel and our past history together. That's one of the secrets I hold closest to heart. **_

**Sami: **Sam grabs her pack and the guy, bringing them over to Phoenix. "I...er...accidentally knifed this guy. I got a bit of a shock. I don't really have time to treat him, so could you do me a favor and do that? I have no idea who he is, but I couldn't just leave him in the highstorm. I've gotta go, so I'll see you around." Sam turns back to Mask. "If you don't mind, I gotta stop by the base first to pick up supplies. It won't take long, but I have to talk to Cole as well."

They started toward the Horneater Peaks.

**S4S: **"I hope this won't take long," I say as I follow Sam. It feels like the same thing as Teshani, just following someone who knows more than me. I can't help but feel that I am a puppet being played by strings, forced to move by my master. But I have no master. I am not one of them...so I follow silently, observing and watching as we journey across a land of blue.

**Sami: **They entered the base. Sam turned to Mask. "I'm going to grab some stuff and change. Do you need anything?"

**S4S: **I shake my head. Most of the journey had been rather quick, at least in thoughts. In real time it took a while to get to this new set of mountains, the so-called Horneater Peaks. But memories make you relive one's past. Memories made this journey quick. Those of running away, seeking another chance, torture, and new worlds. So much seemed so small now...in the cosmere…"I will remain here," I whisper, lost in thought.

**Sami: **Sam raises her eyebrows. "You sure? After all, you _did_ spend the night in a highstorm."

**S4S: **I look down at my body. Although I can see my blue outline, I can't see any visible wounds. The blue vision does little work on detail, but I do see some large gashes in my arms and chest. The combined strength of pewter continues to hold me up. Have I always been burning it? The amount of times now that I'd noticed myself using an unnatural Allomantic metal are constantly rising. Is it really instinct? "I'm fine, thank you," I say. I probably look like death, with ripped robes, a shredded body, and my metal mask. However, I don't want to place myself in debt to anyone. "I'll wait here. Consider it a favor."

**Sami: **Sam nods understandingly. "I'll grab you some vials," she says, and goes off to prepare.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix stands in shock over the hooded figure Sam just left with him. "Accidentally knifed?" He sighs and walks over to the man, feeling for a pulse. It's faint but there. Phoenix Elsecalls himself and the man back to his quarters in Urithiru. Quickly, Phoenix searches for a gold medallion and puts it on the wound. Nothing happens.

Phoenix leans down to the man's ear. "Draw from the medallion!" But the man doesn't respond. All right then, the old fashioned way. He takes some bandages and antiseptic from his pack and binds the wound in the man's gut. He searches again in his pack and finds a medical mechanical breathing apparatus from southern Scadrial and places it over the man's mouth to help his breathing. Next, he places another mechanical device on the man's finger, which starts spitting out vital signs. Phoenix looks at them and sees that the man is in a coma. Phoenix sighs. Where was an Edgedancer or Truthwatcher when you needed them?

After doing everything he could for the man, Phoenix thinks back to his brief conversation with Sami. Did she actually say she needed to talk with _Cole? _Phoenix calms his nerves. _There must be a perfectly good explanation_, he tells himself.

**Tesh: **"There are many things in the cosmere that are beyond comprehension," I say. "Death is one of those things. But people who die are rarely gone. They live on in the hearts and minds of others. So, is she a friend of yours?"

**S4S: **_**Tesh continues to prod at Rachel's background. I don't mind. It sounds like something she would do anyway. But that's still a secret not ready to share. Not yet. So I just smile at her. I can tell that frustrates her, which is why I do it. I was a frustrating man when I was alive, as I now fully admit. "Possibly..." I muse slowly. **_

**Cole: **Cole senses Sam enter through the main entrance. He then frowns as his life sense detects someone else outside. He burns steel, becoming baffled when he realizes that the Inquisitor has came with Sam. His confusion vanishes within seconds. He has more important things to be worried about. The fortress he decimated hadn't been the main base. The real mastermind still lives somewhere. "How did your latest mission go, Sam?" Cole asks.

**Sami: **Sam sees Cole and grins. "There you are. I took out a band of thugs who were hired by a Rosharan. I caught _this_ spanreed conversation going -" Sam tossed a paper roll to him "- and they had some _pretty_ sophisticated stuff in there for just a band of thugs who weren't worldhoppers. I'm getting Tesh's Inquisitor back to Scadrial, so tell me if there's anything you want me to do there. What about you? How did your lead on Roshar go?"

**Cole: **Cole smiled back. "I found an army of Invested soldiers in a fortress. I listened for a time and found that they intended to conquer large swaths of land." His face hardened. "They're all dead now."

**Sami: **Sam listens skeptically. "Conquer large swaths of land? Like where?"

**Cole: **"All across the cosmere. With so many people with the ability to use Investiture, almost nowhere could have survived the onslaught of these armies," Cole replies, anger showing in his eyes.

**Sami: **Sam processes this information slowly. "Got any leads in Scadrial from the base? I'd hate to waste a trip."

**Cole: **"Watch out for any recruitment of Metalborn," Cole advises.

**Tesh**: I sigh. If Mathis doesn't want to tell me, there's no way I'll be able to get it out of him. "I'll take that as a yes," I say, ignoring his smile.

**S4S: **I wait outside as Sam walks inside the mountain fort. The chilly breeze whips at my shredded robes. My mask grows cold as the wind picks up. I pick up another person's voice inside with my tin. Another reason for me to remain outside. Less contact, less attention, less attachments. Is that what I could call them? I sigh as I sit down outside the entryway, stargazing at my feet.

_**I smirk at Tesh's comment. She knows better than to try to pry me open like that. I look over to Rachel. She never liked being the center of attention. So when she gives me a longing look, I nod. Instantly, she spins around into her silver spren and sweeps away into a nearby chasm and out of sight. I lay back into a protruding rock behind me, folding my arms in front.**_

_**"What will you do now?" I ask Tesh, gazing outward at the Shattered Plains. A memory of me running across these plains, racing a highstorm, floods me. A more heavy mood of remembrance and realization falls over me. "Not will you keep running, but **_**where**_**?"**_

**Tesh**: "I...I don't know," I admit hesitantly.

**S4S: **_**"Then is it safe to say that so long as you keep running, you'll get there eventually?" I continue to look outward. Memories. A curse and a blessing. Now that I'm gone, it's like watching someone else's life when you reflect on your own...**_

**Tesh**: How to answer? I have no answer. "I don't even know if I am still running," I whisper.

**S4S: **_**"And will that stop you from trying? Uncertainty? Not knowing what's next? Is that really who you are, Tesh? Because if you aren't running, then take a leap..." **_

**Tesh: **I look up at Mathis, a friend, someone who understands. I can see that understanding in his eyes as he looks at me. "You know, Mathis, I think I can. I may have tripped, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I get up again." A fierce light comes into my eyes, and I am filled with determination. "If I am unable to run, I will walk. If I can't walk, I will crawl. If I can't crawl, I will pull myself along. If I can't do that, my time is up. Well, in the Physical Realm. I just need to push myself back up." I stand up, and Mathis follows suit. "I need to find Mask, and fix this mighty fine mess I've gotten myself into." I smile. "Thank you," I whisper.

**Sami: **Sam steps out of the base, ready to go. "Here. You'll need these." She hands Mask a belt full of vials. "You ready to head off?"

**S4S: **_**I look back at Tesh. A spark has come back to life in her eyes. She now stands tall again like before. This is the Tesh I know. And I remember how much I missed that.**_

_**Being with Rachel again mended my views on life. I saw light and color for the first time, but I could not live with it. It was like looking through glass, where it can be seen, but not touched or truly experienced. Before I could care less; I would rather be behind the glass. But now, all I can do is look back. I made the choice. I chose to leave the world I knew. But you can see so much, see how far you've come, when you look back on where you've been.**_

_**I chose not to stay with my friends. I could have laughed and fought with them, yet I chose not to. I could have asked my father for forgiveness. The man who broke me down for not being good enough. Yet the man I could have been if I had tried and not quit. I never asked how I could be better.**_

_**I chose to leave Rachel. My deepest regret I will never forget. That is why I chose this path. To mend a lifetime of loss in a eternity of eloquence.**_

_**I look to Tesh. "Good luck, Teshani Kholin."**_

I look up from my feet. I say no words as I grab the metals. I rise and follow slowly behind Sam. _Take me home… _

**Tesh: **"Bye, Mathis. I hope we meet again." With that, I reappear in the Physical Realm. With a purpose.

**S4S: **_**Tesh leaves. I stand there for a moment before falling to my knees. Bent over, I stare at the ground, as if it will give me answers.**_

_**Rachel comes back after a moment.**_

_**"I wasted everything..." I whisper. "I could have been so much more."**_

**Sami: **The familiar land materializes around Sam as she steps out of the pool. Sunshine comes as a relief. She glances over at Mask. "Welcome home."

**S4S: **I look up from behind Sam. The journey was the same as before, with Teshani. Slow at pace yet quick in thought. But as I look, I notice that the world has changed. Familiar sounds and smells now return. And even though my vision is that of outlines, I can see this world is different. I'm home.

I look to Sam. "Thank you for bringing me back here," I whisper. I then flare pewter as I grasp my hook and swing it down on her. The hook latches between the neck and shoulder. Painful and a solid hold, yet not deadly. I pull on the chain, throwing Sam to the ground as she's caught off guard, then dash forward, Compounding weight and firmly placing my hand over her neck, holding her down. I lean in close, my mask almost touching Sam's face. Fear can be a powerful tool to change how one thinks.

"I. Am. Not. An. Inquisitor..." I hiss behind the mask. "I serve no master. Teshani could achieve nothing in the present. I do not obey her! I am a man." I lighten up my weight. "The only reason I don't rip you apart as I did the others is the fact that you do possess honor. You helped me; I respect that. But can you respect me for who I am?" With a quick flick of my wrist, I yank out the hook, doing my best to do it with as little pain as possible. "If you're anything like the others, I'm sure that you possess powers that can heal that wound," I say as I rise to walk away. I stop after a few steps. "Thank you. You were one of the few I could trust."

Then, storing weight, I Push off the metals beneath the earth and fly away.

_**I stare at nothing. Looking outwards across the Shattered Plains in the Cognitive Realm, I am numb. Yet in this moment, realization shines through. A hard truth. One that cannot be ignored, as it is the law of the universe itself. "Rachel."**_

_**"Yes?"**_

_**I look over at her blonde hair, soft face, silver dress. Everything as I remembered her as. She was the one lifeline I had during my youth. The one salvation in a world of destruction. And now I still hold to her. "All my life was an effort to survive. To put the past behind me, and move on. Never turning back." I look into her emerald green eyes. "Yet now that I have finished my race, I am afraid to gain the reward. The journey is complete. Yet I have not arrived at the destination..."**_

_**Rachel looks back into my eyes.**_

_**"This isn't eternity, Rachel," I say as I turn to look outward. "This is me holding onto that which I'm afraid to lose. Of all the horrors I have lived through, this is the one that I find most daunting. I have found you, Rachel. I won't let go."**_

_**I begin to shake. A tear falls from my face, or my mind assumes so. For how long I remain there? I cannot tell. But soon Rachel rests a hand on me. "Mathis, all my life I wanted to be like you. I wanted to run. Be an adventurer. Discover new worlds, new powers, and more about myself than I could have imagined. Yet that was not my path. And as time went on, I lived every day thankful that I never had to. I always wanted what you had, until I saw what you had to experience because of it. You were stronger than I ever could have thought possible. That is why I stayed. Through everything I didn't leave you. Because you pulled me through. The same as Teshani, I could not pull you out of darkness, but I could keep pushing you to keep going to the light. And if you decide to leave this world, to take that final step to the Beyond, I will be at your side. Because I never left, and I promise: I won't let go."**_

_**I look at Rachel. She understood. She always did. We pulled through it all. It was hard. Much was dark. But we did it. In the end, we finished our journey...together…a wave of determination washes over me. I close my eyes. "There is only one thing left for me to do. To put the past behind me." I look to Rachel. **_

_**She gives me a warm smile, then jumps to embrace me. Her warmth brings me calm. "Thank you, Mathis." She gives me a sudden kiss. For a moment, everything is still and perfect. Then, slowly, Rachel begins to grow dim, becoming a silver outline. Soon, I no longer feel her body, her kiss. She disappears.**_

_**I open my eyes. A shattered land, with a shattered mind within - my own. I remain for a while. Memories of friends. A meeting. Racing the highstorm. Saving Tesh. Tesh saving me. Vara. Sam. Cole. Phoenix. Contessa. Rachel. I rise to my feet, taking one last look at the world. "Thank you, friends. For everything." **_

_**Rachel took the leap. It is my turn. I will myself into the Physical Realm. I remain for a moment. A few mental breaths. Then, I let go. With a final thought, I break my bonds to this world.**_ _**"Goodbye forever...Mathis...Knight of the Wind..." **_

_**I close my eyes as a soft breeze comes. My body becomes stretched out, as if a figure of mist, before floating away in small specks of power and light, something I never realized I had in me. The light trails away until fully dissipated. **_

_**I enter the Beyond… **_

_**The world continues as it once did. Time continues as if nothing occurred. A silent passing for two friends, only evident by the passion they shared. But at the center of the Shattered Plains, something has changed. Placed lightly atop a rock, two steel bands appear, wrapped within a worn, colorless cloak. **_

**Sami: **Sam watches Mask leave, ignoring the blood running down her neck. "Mask!" she calls after him. "Don't let anyone fit you into what they think you should be or do. You're your own person - you don't have to become what everyone thinks you are. Prove them wrong." Sam's face softens. "Remember that. If you ever need anything, you know where to find me." She turns away, her face shadowed by the sun behind her. Then she takes off into the sky.

**S4S: **I fly through the darkness, Pushing on the blue beneath me as I move across Scadrial. It is calming now, knowing that I am back where I belong. This is how it was meant to be. _Don't let anyone fit you into what they think you should be or do. You're your own person. _Did Sam really see that in me? Was I wrong about her? But she referred to me as an Inquisitor. Was it her admitting a wrong, being a hypocrite, or something else?

Soon I see an irregular mass of blue ahead of me. I fall to the ground just outside the city. I then walk counterclockwise of the town, remaining on the outskirts. After a few minutes of walking, I notice a large V of metal deep in the ground. This is the city. The same one before I left. I turn outward, following the arrow away from the city. I move at a slow jog, making sure not to deviate away from the directions. I approach a rock formation, moving around to the opposite side, feeling it as I walk. I reach the other side and stop at a certain fissure in the face of rock. Within the stone, a hidden pulley system sits, run by Pushes and Pulls. I Compound weight and activate the complex lock. I see the gears and pulleys activate in turn at each calculated Push and Pull.

Then the rock in front of me splits. Opening up, the rock reveals a spiral staircase that falls into the earth. I step through, activating the reset switch, which resets the rock and gears back into place. Silently, I make my way down the steps. I said I would never return here. But this isn't me turning back to the past. It's me looking forward to the future.

**Sami: **Sam turned back to Roshar. She had taken enough time already getting Mask back to Scadrial, and there was work to do.

**Tesh: **The sun begins to set. A beautiful work of art painted over the horizon. I stand still, staring at the sunset, for what seems like hours but is only minutes. Suddenly I see Mathis appear, in the form of the steel colored orb, only a few feet from me.

"Goodbye, Mathis," I whisper. Then he is gone. "Knight of the Wind." I look down to the ground over which he had been floating. A gray bundle lies there. Mathis's cloak. I walk over and gingerly pick it up. A faint click comes from inside of it. "You will never be forgotten," I say, looking up at the sunset. "Never."

**Cole: **Cole sits in his map room. Pulses of Investiture come from all around Roshar. Feruchemical nicrosil and Allomantic bronze let him feel pulses all across the continent. Whenever a new one comes, Cole marks it on the map. Soon he'll have enough information to pinpoint where the main headquarters of the organization he's been stalking.

**Sami: **Sam stares up at the Horneater Peaks looming up in front of her. The trip through the Cognitive Realm had not been an easy one. Her clothes were ripped and torn, and her pack was gone. Closing her eyes for a second, reaching wearily for a nonexistent vial and sucking in Stormlight that isn't there, she starts up the mountain - one foot after the next.

**Tesh: **My small camp surrounds me. A small fire, my pack, and my bedroll. "I must return to Scadrial," I whisper to myself. "I must stop the Steel Inquisition from returning." I walk over to my bedroll and lay down, pulling the blanket over myself. The stars look down at me, and the fire pops as it begins to run out of wood. A sudden thought pops into my head, and I grimace. But I must do it, for the sake of the cosmere. I must.

**Sami: **Almost at the point of collapse, Sam stops at the landmark she knows marks the heavily camouflaged fortress. Setting the hidden triggers so that she doesn't set off the protection safeguards, she steps inside. She's exhausted, as she has not rested from her hard trip back through the Cognitive Realm before walking the whole way up the mountains. Swiping back her dusty hair from her sweat-covered forehead, she sucks in some much needed Stormlight and promptly collapses.

**Tesh: **I am awoken by the sun as it rises over the horizon. I quickly pack up and begin to walk.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix stared at the man lying in front of him, hooked up to his medical equipment, trying to make sense of what he saw. The man had more than a normal share of Investiture, that he could easily tell from his enhanced senses. By his face, the man appeared to be from Scadrial, and seeing as he somehow made the trip up the mountains in Urithiru, he was probably a Coinshot. What was a Coinshot doing here on Roshar? What were the implications? A spy, most likely. But for whom?

Suddenly, the medical equipment started making urgent sounds. The man was going into cardiac arrest. His life sense told him the man was quickly fading, and there was nothing Phoenix could do about it, at least not here on Roshar.

Well, there was one thing he could do. Perhaps he could not save the man, but he could at least preserve the man's gifts and use them for a better good. Phoenix had always carried Hemalurgic spikes around, but had never before faced a situation where he could justify using them, at least not in this way. Confident now that the man was on his last breaths, Phoenix drove a steel spike through his heart, and, a heartbeat later, drove the spike through one of the many possible bind points on himself. Hopefully he could use this new strength now for the good of the cosmere. Phoenix smiled and launched himself out the window, using coins from the man's pouch to Steelpush himself through the air toward the mountains in the distance.

For good measure, Phoenix burned the spike to absorb the stolen Investiture into himself. No reason to leave evidence of his condition. He would also need to be careful now, as too many spikes could have their own consequences.

Phoenix flew around Roshar to his heart's content. He had always wanted an aerial view of worlds. There was so much to learn from different perspectives. He had nearly crashed twice into mountains since his aim with the coins had been off, but tapping just a bit of pewter to enhance his arm strength slightly improved his aim. Also tapping some chromium for luck, at least while he was learning, didn't hurt.

After a while, though, his steel ran out, and suddenly Phoenix no longer saw the blue lines connected to metal. Quickly storing weight into his iron metalmind, he slowly drifted down onto a mountainside. Weren't these the Horneater Peaks? After settling down, Phoenix realized with a shock that he'd left all of his spheres back at Urithiru. All but his newly acquired gem were down on chains to absorb Stormlight from the storm that had just passed. And with the recent Stormlight shortage, he had converted more Breaths to Stormlight than he was comfortable with. No, he was not going to lose his life sense over that. He would walk until he found signs of life, and hopefully he would find spheres. Phoenix tapped his tin to enhance his senses as he begins his journey home.

Preston came to him and said, "Hey, do you sense what is up ahead, on that side of the mountain straight and to your right? I can see from the Cognitive Realm that there are signs of life somewhere over there, as if someone has made a home of a sort in the mountain."

Phoenix honed in on that area, but sensed nothing. Was there someone there who didn't want to be found? Sounded interesting enough, and they would likely have spheres. Phoenix followed Preston to the curious hideout.

**Sami: **Samar opens her eyes. She was in a heap on the floor, her dusty form sprawled out as if she'd just collapsed. _Storms, how did I let that happen_? she thought, only vaguely remembering stumbling through the gate and collapsing on the ground. Grabbing one of Cole's vials from the wall, she went to clean up and change. She needed food and a plan.

**S4S: **I slowly walk down the stone cavern. The temperature has dropped substantially in the enclosed space of rock. I brush the stone with my hand as I descend further down, tin allowing me to feel every bump and rivet of rock. Soon the passage opens wider into a large cavern. The rock contains many traces of metal, making it easy for me to navigate. I sigh as I walk to the center of the chamber.

**Jay: **It was a hot day, uncommon for the Shattered Plains. Sebarial's camp was lively today, though I couldn't place why. I had my own shop set up, with a master-servant at its helm. Around the camp I could see parshmen and slaves, doing everything from cleaning the latrines to cooking food. I shuddered at the sight of them, thinking of my time as an adolescent and how I was treated in the streets of Luthadel. I would never own slaves, though every chance I got I would purchase one. Today was one of those days.

A young girl, maybe fifteen years at most, was in a slaver's wagon and I could see the merchants eyeing her. They were offering all kinds of money for her. The average value of a darkeyed girl of fifteen was ten skymarks.

I stepped in. "I'll give you two emerald broams for the girl."

The slaver started, eyes bulging. "I couldn't possibly take less than three broams, you see I..."

I cut him off with a longsword made of dark steel against his throat. "I will take the girl for a single emerald broam now, and you will leave this camp immediately."

The slaver ran off with the broam in hand and left the young girl in my care. I looked down at her dirty appearance and said to her, "Well, you're free now. I forgive you of your slave debt. If you would like, there is a position at my estate. I can't pay you much, but I can promise you ten firemarks per week if you choose to stay."

The girl didn't say much, just stared, so I asked for her name.

"Cena Tekiel."

I choked, recognizing that name, so I dug into my pockets to find my good luck charm, a single clip from my younger days. I displayed it to her between two fingers and watched her reaction intently. Her eyes widened with understanding; she looked at me and ran away. I was bewildered by this, but I let her go. I knew she'd be back. We both had lots of questions for each other.

**Tesh: **I hear a faint clicking coming from my pocket. Infused spheres. I grin. This trip is about to get a whole lot easier. A while later, I see the warcamps in the distance. The people who hadn't joined my father on his journey to Urithiru were not the smartest people in the world. The exhilaration that I experience while falling is beyond words. I lightly land in front of a camp. Six years of memories come crashing down on me, and I gasp with the weight of them, then start running toward the mansion. I need to get in.

**Sami: **Sam glances out at the mountainside and sees a familiar figure making his way towards the fortress. She narrows her eyes - is that _Phoenix? _The storming guy was going to set off all the auto-defenses. She sprints down one of the many tunnels and came up behind Phoenix, who was about to set off a trap. Making sure to cover the trapdoor behind her, she lunges forwards and grabs him, strong-arming him back before he gets impaled by a bullet - or whatever else Cole put there.

**Shadow: **I regain consciousness slowly. It is not an easy task.

There is light. I can sense that much. My eyes can see into the Physical Realm now, and I see brief flashes of luminescence, pockmarking my vision. I am moving incredibly fast. As fast as my phantom ship could take me in Sel. As fast as I've ever traveled. My mind drifts as I struggle above the murkiness that clouds my thoughts. I see the dark trees, a newly-formed shade wearing the face of my father. I see a vast ocean, the chaotic darkness wriggling just out of sight but visible to my soul. I feel the soft dirt beneath my feet as I run, cutting my arms on branches, wildly swinging a silver coin behind me as I struggle for safety, the last of my caravan left alive.

Old thoughts, an old life. Wilberforce Thornton was a hard man. Ages have passed since I lived that life. I am not that person anymore. Now I am...uncaring. I chose immortality, and with it I suffered a detachment from my past. I had to let go to continue forward. All I had ever known about life changed dramatically the moment I surrendered myself to become a Cognitive Shadow. All I had ever hoped for shifted as I struggled in vain to gain back my Physical Connection. I threw the chance away, not willing to take a life to regain my own. The Splinter on Roshar seemed to think that noble. But his solution had its own cost…

My eyes acclimate to the swirling winds and rain around me. Spren frolic gaily in the Investiture that fills the Realms, and predators stalk the stragglers greedily. Ever-present is the Stormlight, and the flashes of lightning only distract me momentarily from its glory. So different from the Dor, and yet so alike. Power trapped with such small hope of release. Here and there it Invests the spheres, remnants of the bond between spren and the crustaceans that walk the land. But constantly it bores into my form, pouring through me like a leak in a boat.

How long? How long has my mind been scrubbed of thought? I wearily try to pull back from the storm, but my spirit has now been bound to it. I am pulled along by it inexorably.

YOU SEEM DISPLEASED, CHILD. The voice reverberates through my being.

"I am merely disoriented," I say as loudly as I can. The power coursing through me is threatening my Identity, for with every passing moment I feel flakes of my soul peeling off. "I do not think I can survive this bond much longer."

The winds rumble in disappointment. YOU MUST LEARN HONOR IF YOU ARE TO SURVIVE.

Indeed, I have very little in the way of honor. I forsook all bonds when I fled from Threnody. I never made many bonds in the first place. Life there was too uncertain. And ever since I have not striven to attach myself to any goal or any cause. The Knights of the Cosmere were the exception for me, but I did not seek them out to truly try to make a difference. I wanted to see if they could assist me in regaining a Connection.

The power of the Shard continues to push on my mind. I am fighting it, but it is a losing battle. In truth, I cannot hold it back much longer. I am not sure I even want to, anymore. With nothing left to lose, I surrender to the power and let it fill me, overwrite me, consume -

_"Why are you doing that?" a small voice asks. I put down my pruning shears and see a little girl standing below next to my ladder. Her curly hair falls away from her face as she gazes up at me, and she cannot be more than ten years old._

_"I'm trimming the tree," I say with a smile. "It wants to grow too big, so I cut off the new branches it's trying to grow to keep it the size we want it."_

_She plays with the edge of her brown skirt. "Do trees feel pain?"_

_"Of course not," I laugh. "They lack a nervous system. Only animals feel pain, as far as we know."_

_"Have you asked the tree what it wants?" She looks unhappy with my reply, and is eyeing my shears with contempt. "Maybe it wants to be a big tree."_

_Sensing a philosophical discussion coming on, I climb down the ladder and sit on the bottom rung. "What is your name, my friend?"_

_"Hannah."_

_"Well, Hannah, do you know what kind of tree this is?"_

_She shakes her head._

_"It's a cherry tree," I explain. "Did you know that cherry trees can grow to more than double this height?"_

_Hannah's eyes widen. "Why don't you let it?"_

_"Because if it uses all of its energy to grow branches, it will not grow any cherries. We keep it trimmed so that it grows at a slower pace, so it does not injure itself by getting too big, and so it will produce more fruit for us to enjoy."_

_"That sounds kind of selfish," Hannah says with a frown._

_"Perhaps so," I chuckle. "But we help the tree to grow, and plant its seedlings so that they in turn can grow. The tree needs us so that we can protect it and nurture its offspring, and we need it for food. We cannot survive without the other."_

_"But does it hurt the tree to be pruned?" she asks again._

_"No, like I said before -"_

_"But how do you know? Have you asked it?"_

_I have to think before I respond this time. "It is of no consequence whether it hurts the tree. Pruning is what the tree needs. Just like you may not like to exercise to stay strong and fast, but it is what you need. Pain and loss are not bad for us, my friend. They are as necessary for life as air and sunlight."_

_A woman begins calling Hannah's name, and the girl jumps up and runs off before whoever is looking for her finds her. Before she disappears around a row of shade trees, however, she looks at me with contemplative eyes. I don't know if anything I just said had an impact on her. Maybe I was too philosophical for her. I am no good with children, unfortunately. But study and gardening - those I am quite adept at. _

_I climb up the ladder and wonder what it would be like to be a father and have children of my own. Clara would have made a good wife, but I could never have been a good husband for her. An opportunity lost, years ago. _

**Phoenix: **Phoenix is startled as a mysterious figure grabs him from behind. Tapping pewter and steel, in a heartbeat he is out from under the figure and has his Shardblade drawn. Then he realizes who the figure is. "Sami! What is your problem! What are you doing all the way out here? And what is this I hear about you working with Cole!?"

**Tesh: **The library has fallen into disrepair since we had left. It smells slightly musty, barely distinguishable from the scent of paper. I sigh contentedly. But I did not come here to read. I walk to a back bookshelf and take a large volume off the shelf. It's still here.

**Jay: **I wake up the next morning, invigorated. Today is the day I unveil my new dagger design. It is designed using the toughest of steel, but is edged with obsidian. In the hilt, I designed a compartment that could store two tiny glass vials. This was for my own personal use, even though I hadn't used my Allomancy in over seven years. I did however, keep a spare vial of metals with me at all times.

Becoming a master smith was the smartest thing I had ever done. In doing so, I was able to figure out and craft the perfect recipe for all fourteen of the different metals, only lacking atium and lerasium, as it was unclear how to craft those. Since I had been transported to Roshar, I knew there just had to be more people from my homeland, and as it turned out I was correct. Over the years, I had been stockpiling these metals, using the scraps from my smith to make vials full of them. I opened the secret compartment on a few of the daggers, and I slipped some empty glass vials in there. This way, I'm sure I can find more of my kind. I leave for the market to demo the daggers.

**Tesh: **I carefully tuck the book into my bag without opening it and step out of the library. The sun stings my eyes as I step outside, and I blink rapidly to adjust. I need more supplies, but my father's warcamp is completely empty of food. I decide to go to Sebarial's camp, as we're related. I also left my horse with a friend of mine there.

**Jay: **I set up my wares in the center of Sebarial's center of commerce. One couldn't consider this place a warcamp any longer. Scanning the crowd, I ingested a bit of pewter, some bronze, and some brass for the very first time since I awoke in Roshar. It was time to stop hiding. It was time to start looking.

I stoked my bronze; feeling the warmth in my stomach brought back an almost euphoric sensation. It was the first time I had felt it in almost a decade. _This is going to be tricky_, I thought to myself as I realized how rusty I was. _I suppose I won't be able to see what kind of Allomancy they are using, just that they are using it. _I sensed through the crowd, getting nothing. That didn't surprise me, however, so I began.

I started burning my pewter and nearly jumped out of my skin. Kalak's breath, I'd forgotten how energizing that feels. I couldn't let it distract me. "Lighteyes, darkeyes, and anybody who can hear. I claim that my dagger is sharper and more durable than any, and I bet one of the blades themselves on it!" I began to burn my brass, focusing on dulling...disinterest? I wasn't entirely sure, to be honest. I hadn't used that ability since I was eight years old, and had accidentally caused a fight by silencing all of another man's inhibitions. "Who dares take my challenge?" I kept my metals burning, waiting.

**Tesh: **I am greeted by a bustling crowd. The market. Perfect. I finger the multitude of spheres in my pocket and allow myself to be swept up in the crowd. My pack, sword, spear, and uniform attract some strange glances. I'm probably a mess. Then I heard a shout. Turning to the table, I grin. A new dagger would be welcomed. "Who dares take my challenge?"

I walk up to it and summon my Shardblade under the table in the form of a dagger. "I do." The young man looked at my dirt-streaked face curiously for a second.

**Jay: **"I do." I turn to find a young woman with a disheveled look but a clean-pressed uniform. Storms, she's pretty. I push that thought away.

"So, you think your dagger can withstand mine?" I pull out one of my daggers. It's made from a dark steel, almost black in color, and accented with an obsidian serration about a quarter inch up. It looks like perfection. The hilt was made out of quartz, left hollow for its compartment, but wrapped tightly in red-stained hogshide for grip. I intentionally left the compartment open and emptied the hilt of the empty vials, then closed it. I look at her and grin.

**Tesh: **I look curiously at the vials the man pulls from the hilt. They look suspiciously like vials Allomancers use to store metals. "So you think your dagger can withstand mine?"

"Yep," I say, and take my Sharddagger and lay it on the table with my hand on the hilt.

Of course, it is glowing a bright blue. It is about a foot long, with intricate designs on the blade and hilt. The crossguard is straight and about six inches across. I grin back at him.

**Jay: **I look down at her, grinning. I can see some joyspren mixed with a few anticipationspren. Storm it, this girl somehow _knows_ she's going to beat me. But how? She sets her dagger on my table. It glows a bright blue. A miniature Shardblade?!

I reach into my pocket and dig out a nugget of bendalloy. Well, I haven't tested this in public just yet…I shove it into my mouth and burn it, creating a bubble around myself and this girl. "We need to talk in private. Please use a regular weapon, and I'll give you one of mine with only a conversation as payment." Before she has a chance to respond, I drop the bubble, and time around us resumes. I look at her urgently.

**Tesh: **My mouth drops. This man is an Allomancer. "Where?" I ask. I am not concerned about him attacking me; I could easily fight him off. "Wait, come with me. I know where. I need to retrieve my horse from a friend anyway."

**Jay: **I finish the demonstration, with the girl - I didn't know her name just yet - using a normal dagger. I hear applause, and let them know they can come by my shop later that day to purchase one. As the crowds dissipate, the girl asks, "Where?" Before I can answer, she says, "Wait, come with me. I know where. I need to retrieve my horse from a friend anyway."

I follow her, confident that if she attacks me I'll be okay.

**Tesh: **"What's your name?" I ask. We're headed in the direction of Sebarial's stables.

**Jay: **"Jay. And you'll have to forgive me, I'm unsure of my parentage. What is yours?"

**Tesh: **I sigh. "I prefer for people not to know, but considering the fact that you're an Allomancer, I will tell you. I am the adopted daughter of Dalinar Kholin. I ran away from my birth parents years years ago." He stares at me. I am unsure if it is because I recognized him as an Allomancer, or because of my parentage.

**Sami: **Sam scowled at Phoenix. "Seriously? You nearly set off all the safeguards and I just saved you from walking straight into a barrage of bullets. What are you doing up here, anyway?"

**Jay: **I stared at her blankly. I couldn't decide which bit of news surprised me more, her being an adopted relative of Dalinar Kholin, or the fact that she knew I was an Allomancer. "Okay, so hang on just a minute. Did I hear you right?" I pulled out a boxing and show it to her. "Tell me what this is to you." I fiddle with one of my gold wristbands while watching her.

**Phoenix: **"Safeguards... " The last piece clicked into place. "This base, it's yours, isn't it? Which means it's yours and Cole's since you're working together now...out of all the places I could have stumbled upon. All I wanted was a nice flight, that's all. And how could you expect for me to resist investigating a hole in the mountain being lived in that obviously did not want to be found? Interesting traps there, by the way. It would have taken me a whole hour to disarm them."

Preston piped in, "Yeah, you weren't so hidden from the Cognitive Realm's view."

"So what are you going to do now, take me prisoner? You and I are not so different, you know. We both want to keep the cosmere safe, and are willing to get our hands a bit dirty in the process. At one point I thought even Cole was all right, and for similar reasons, until that day he sided with a _Splinter_ of all things and tried to kill me."

**Sami: **Sam cocked her head. "An hour to disarm them? I'm pretty sure you'd find them a little harder to disarm than that - especially seeing as you would have been dead in a couple seconds within knowing about them. Cole didn't try to kill you. He merely wanted you pinned down for a bit - and I have no idea what made you think he sided with the Splinter. We killed it, in case you missed that. Also, don't call me Sami. That was Samar Kazan's nickname - I go by Sam Kerdice now."

**Tesh: **Jay holds out a boxing. "What does this mean to you?"

My voice catches in my throat. _Sazin. Mahshi. Mathis. _I take a deep breath. "To me, that coin means loss, pain, and grief. I will not say that it is not a convenient way to travel or fight, or that it is not money, but it holds memories for me. Memories that are beyond words. Pain beyond expression." _Mask. _"The pain of knowing you've been wrong your whole life." _Mahshi may still be alive... _"And...hope." I wait half a second, and say, "And yes, I am an Allomancer."

**Jay: **"I have to leave," I say suddenly, and run off in the direction of the camp's gate. I swear I saw that girl, the slave I set free. I need to know more. Realizing that I just rudely ran away from someone, I turn back and quickly shout. "Uh, follow me?"

I run in the direction of the girl, quickly taking out my vial full of metals. I switch my boxing for a piece of scrap metal and drop it. I Push off of it and soar through the air. By the Almighty, that made me feel amazing. While I flew through the air, I Rioted the emotions of distractedness, so as to not be seen. I land in front of Cena.

**Tesh: **I sigh and Lash myself after Jay. He lands in front of a girl few years younger than me.

**Phoenix: **"Oh, of course I knew about the traps, and long before I arrived. Did you think that if Preston could sense your base from the Cognitive Realm that he couldn't also sense its defenses? That almost insults me, that you'd think I would just walk into a trap. And by the way, your traps could use some enhancement. There are so many flaws in the design I think a chull could get through some of them. As for Cole...if what you say is true, then you could at least have warned me of what you had planned. If I had known your goal had ultimately been the Splinter, I may not have even sided with Tesh.

Trust goes a long way, you know! Storms, I even helped you bring Cole to the Purelake, and you turned on me assuming I wouldn't be palatable to your plan! Tesh had already been getting on my nerves by then, just leading us around without actually getting much done. She wasn't even willing to use the strongest of us as an asset, because of some petty grudge. Why do you think I went with you to get Cole in the first place?"

**Jay: **"Cena, I'm from Scadrial, and I'm convinced you are too. Why did you run away?"

The girl looked horrified. "Because...I'm a Smoker, and was burning my copper, and yet you still found me. I don't understand, how did you see through my coppercloud?"

"I didn't. It was your name. Cena Tekiel. The Lord Prelan really enjoyed gallivanting around. I simply...connected the dots."

She became noticeably more relaxed. Storms, if this girl was afraid of power, she'd be terrified to know what myself and even the one behind me are capable of doing. I began to sense a lot of...something...coming from the Kholin girl. I turn around and face her. "Well, count me among the Ten Fools, I never got your first name!"

**Tesh: **"Teshani," I say, skidding to a stop next to Jay. "In formal circumstances. But other than that, everyone calls me Tesh." I shake my head. "Formal dinners are nightmares." I look at the girl Jay had landed in front of. She has slave brands. I turn back to Jay. "Allomantic abilities?" I ask.

**Jay: **"Teshani, got it. She is a Smoker, which, if you don't remember, means she burns copper to obscure the use of abilities. Here's the thing though, I sense more than that from her," I whisper to Tesh. I look into Teshani's eyes, probably a little bit too long, then I wink at her.

"I arrived on Roshar just one year ago, and I'm not sure what a Lord Prelan is," says the girl.

**Sami: **"Well, you'd only just arrived," Sam said, frowning. "And come on, how was I to know that your alignments were sketchy? Don't hold a grudge on me for not telling a Surgefinder I had turned traitor!" She jerked her head towards the fortress. "So, what are you going to do now?"

**Tesh: **I roll my eyes. "Of _course _I know what a Smoker is. I should, considering my history with Scadrial. I'm surprised you haven't sensed anything fishy about me." I lean against the wall of a building. "And I meant _your _Allomantic abilities." I am laughing so hard inside. This man is not the brightest.

**Jay: **"Storms, my apologies. I've been so focused on this girl that I've been missing your context. Well, I feel comfortable telling you I am a full-fledged Mistborn, though I've only mastered iron and steel. I do have other abilities, but I'm not ready to share those just yet. Also, I _have _noticed a few things, I just don't particularly find you a threat, so I figured you'll talk about them when you're ready. Besides, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve I'm not ready to share just yet!" I wink again.

**Phoenix: **"Look, I'm not one to hold grudges. I just needed to know why. Now that that's settled, it seems to me that your new faction is much more aligned to my goals than the Surgefinders. I won't even hold a grudge against Cole. He is extremely effective, after all, which is what the cosmere needs. So, if you'll have me, where do I sign up?"

**Sami: **Sam raised an eyebrow. "Sign up? You'll have to talk to Cole about that - speaking of which, I have no idea where he is. But how do I know I can trust you? What are these goals you keep talking about?"

**Tesh: **I snort and then start laughing. I laugh so hard, tears come to my eyes. "Not a threat?" I force out. "Really? _Really? _I'm a Windrunner; I've also had years of training with various weapons. Oh, _really?" _I finally manage to stop laughing, and I wipe the tears from my eyes. I wasn't too surprised that he was Mistborn, but _honestly. _

**Phoenix: **"Have I ever given reason for you to not trust me? But in giving you my promise of loyalty, know that I do not turn against my comrades. In doing this, I am not even betraying Tesh. I joined the Surgefinders in the hopes of making a difference in the cosmere, and Tesh's leadership didn't result in even a dent of a difference. Also, when I left, then resurfaced a few weeks later, Tesh reacted as if she did not care in the least that I had returned. So no, I do not betray anyone's loyalty, as long as they show loyalty in return.

My goals are simple. The eradication of Odium and anything that stands in the way of that goal, while also protecting the cosmere as a whole. My methods are primarily research and reconnaissance, but if the situation calls for it am willing to cross lines others may not be willing to. It is quite easy to spy from the Cognitive Realm, you know. And being able to pop in and out at will is _extremely _convenient. I surmise there is a band of worldhoppers, primarily from Scadrial, even now on Roshar seeking to cause trouble for the people here struggling against Odium. The man you left for me to tend had some interesting revelations. Even in a coma, he told a very interesting story."

**Sami: **"Have you ever given me a reason to trust you?" Sam shrugs, walking over to the triggers and heading towards the fortress. "Earlier I took out a band of thugs in _Scadrial_ with a _spanreed_. Someone's building an army of Investiture-enhanced soldiers to destroy the world. Cole took out a base in Roshar."

**Jay: **"I feel there was a misunderstanding. I don't mean to say you're weak - quite the opposite, actually. I mean that I don't feel like I am unsafe. You strike me as the kind of person who, if you wanted me dead, you'd have done it already." I nervously fiddle with my bracelets again.

**Phoenix: **"Remember when we confronted the Splinter, and you said we should go get Cole? Did I not aid you? I don't know what else I could say to you. Give me a chance to prove my loyalty. Let me help with this band of worldhoppers."

**Sami: **Sam rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I'm telling you about it?"

**Phoenix: **"Well, then, what are we doing here discussing it? Where's the next target?"

**Sami: **"How should I know?" Sam says, gesturing with her head for Phoenix to step inside. "Cole didn't have the time to give me a good briefing - he was meant to do it now, but I have no idea where he is at the moment."

**Shadow: **How long…? How long...and how?

Honor. Honor. Honor. I am bound by honor. By Honor, to be precise. I have so little of honor in my soul, I am surprised I was able to absorb his power at all. By all accounts, I am more attuned to Cultivation than any other Shard of which I am aware. Honor. Have I any honor? Have I any codes at all?

_My pen nib catches on an uneven segment of parchment and sends a small splatter across the page. I sigh and quickly blot it up with a towel. It leaves a small stain, but not an obtrusive one, thankfully. I'm only grateful that it isn't an important work I'm copying down._

_The candlelight calms me as I work through the restless hours of the night, unable to sleep until my task is finished. My hand is sore from grasping the pen so carefully, and my eyes are beginning to droop, but still I continue writing._

_This book has the history of my contractor's homeland written in a more ancient dialect. I am not, thankfully, translating today, only copying down what is written. It isn't hard work, but it requires more concentration than usual, so I am forced to keep my attention from wandering. My job, my duty, even my calling, is to restore what works I can, to preserve what is salvageable, and to transcribe what cannot be saved. This book has several leafs falling apart. Reconstruction was difficult, and not permanent by any stretch of the imagination. I feel sad about seeing such a beautiful work of art fall into disrepair._

_The next time I look up is when my candle sputters, warning me that I have but a few moments to light another or else feel my way through the darkness to the stairwell, climb up to the fireplace, and light one anew. I rub my eyes and quickly grab another stub and light it, setting it carefully on top of the still-burning candle within the candlestick. It stays, and I am able to continue working tirelessly._

_A sudden chill passes over me and I glance and see a shade standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. It takes my heart a few moments to calm down as I remember I haven't broken any of the laws. I didn't kindle fire, I merely transferred it. That does not break the law of the shades. Then I see the figure's details - a strong chin, a square face, serious eyes._

_"Hello, father." I hold up my page, being careful not to cut my finger on the edge. My voice trembles slightly and I talk fast. "This isn't something you would have understood in your lifetime, but maybe you'd be interested now. I'm preserving a man's family record for his future generations. I won't make much on it, but I hope he'll be impressed by my work and entrust me with more valuable jobs."_

_I swear I can see my father's hand raise a few inches, as if trying to reach for the page._

_"It is what I want to do," I say. "Can you understand? I did not want your fate, lost in a forest, withered by the shades, all for the sake of a few precious goods. I desired a more meaningful life, and a more meaningful end."_

_The shade, if it has any notion of what I'm saying, doesn't react. It simply continues to look at me, unchanging. It is not doing me any harm, but now I am unable to concentrate on my job. I knew it might be a problem when I came here. The lord of this manor did not employ any barriers against the shades._

_I finger the blade in my pocket, a constant defense with many blackened edges. I could end the threat now. I would never have to worry about the phantom that follows me wherever I go ever again. The choice is tempting. So easy, so quick. Here, while the shade is unaware…_

_"No." I slide my hand out of my pocket and grip the table to cease my trembling. After twenty years I still cannot forget the man I knew and loved. I know that this creature is not my father, and still I cannot do it. Perhaps it is a weakness. Perhaps… _

Honor.

A pecking on my cheek starts me out of my reverie. The plumes of white that fill my vision are entirely on the Cognitive Realm, but I can see a slight distortion in the Physical as well. The strange, symbol-eyed companion that joined me so long ago chirps with apprehension.

I take a breath and nod to him. "I am all right, my friend." I notice that I have stopped moving. I stand now on an empty field with cracks running through it. The Shattered Plains. The storm is gone. Have I then found Honor in myself? Perhaps not much. Perhaps just enough. In the distance I see smoke rising. That means civilization. I think I remember there were some people there who did not heed the call to assemble at Urithiru. Maybe I can find some of the Knights there. And maybe I can get my dagger back from Phoenix.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix steps inside the base. "Nice setup, if a little crude. Alas, if only the technology from Sel worked on this planet."

Sam glares at Phoenix.

"All right, considering what you've had to work with here, it's not half bad." Phoenix steps into the next room. "Is that a dynamic map over there? What is it tracking?"

**S4S: **I move to the center of the cold chamber. There, supported by four solid steel legs, a long piece of stone lays. Across the top, multiple grooves and carvings cover its face. One simple glance would make one assume this to be some odd piece of work. But this was an altar. An altar to a dead God…

_"Project Archangel." _

_Who was that? My vision begins to clear. I shake my head, trying to clear it. My thoughts are slow and thick. Soon I gain my bearings. I am in the middle of a stone room. Motion comes from all sides as I notice I am lying on my back, staring upward at the ceiling._

_"Prepare for testing." I look down at my feet. A man, older by his looks, begins to walk around the table to my right. He eyes me the whole time, a sort of hunger in his eyes._

_I try to move away from the man, but get stopped short. A meticulous and complex steel contraption holds my arms and legs tight. I try sitting up, but another contraption suddenly gets set in place, holding my torso down. _

_"Project Archangel," the man repeats, "are you ready to proceed?"_

_I look at the man, utterly confused at what is happening. "What..." _

_The man leans over me, looking into my eyes. His gaze is uneasy. "The anesthesia will cause a state of delirium for a period of time," the man says, looking up momentarily, "which is...well...let's just say 'long enough.'" He nods. A cold, metal contraption wraps around my head, clamping me in place. Unseen hands tighten it. _

_"God is dead," the man says, looking down at me. "Man has killed him. The Lord Ruler no longer remains supreme. And while there may be only one God, he has many followers. That is what you are. You are an instrument in God's unseen hands. An angel. But you are special. You are the first of his returned. You are Project Archangel." The man snaps his head up and walks away. "Begin."_

_I can do nothing but watch as a steel spike floats into view, stopping directly in front of my eye. Crimson blood drips from the spike, splattering my face and eye. But my eyes remain open in horror. The last view of color that I ever see is the clash of shining steel on dark maroon slamming into my eye… _

_...PAIN. _

The memory comes unwillingly. Pain in the color of red. I bow my head before removing the mask from my face, brushing my hair back in exhaustion. I set the mask down on the altar as I turn to observe the room.

The wall at the head of the table has tacks of metal holding up parchment. I cannot see the writing, just traces of metal in the ink. The other three walls surround the rest of the room. Clustered in groups with various sizes and strengths, spikes line the shelves. Each one is inside a jar of glass and blood, laid about almost as if trophies. Only the brass lids to the jars and slight metal traces in the blood indicate that there is a container at all.

They tested each and every one on me. How much power to achieve this level of pewter strength? How many spikes to achieve this much sense with tin? Inserting, _removing_, placing, _extracting_, impaling, _ripping..._Again. And again. And again, until they received the desired outcome. I wasn't an Inquisitor. I was an experiment. No Inquisitor had to experience pain like I did.

I tap weight. I then _Push _out on the brass lids of the jars with spikes. I scream, a feral sound, as the containers shoot across the room before shattering against the wall. Glass and spikes fly outward. Some ricochet off me, yet I do not feel them. I turn and rip the papers off the wall before tearing them to shreds. I then take the remains and throw them into the blood from the jars, mixing them in with my hands to destroy all evidence.

I turn lastly to the altar at the center of the room. Flaring pewter, I rip the stone off the metal supports anchoring it to the ground. Raising it over my head, I Compound weight and throw the altar down in a flare of pewter and rage. Stone hits stone, shattering both the altar and a small crater into shrapnel. Dust explodes outward before settling down around me. All that is left are two bloodied, fist-sized rocks in my hands where I held the altar.

I fall to my knees, dropping the stones beside me. Blood, glass, parchment and dust cover me. I raise my hands to my face in pain. I feel the blood of others streak on my face. Bent over with memories of my past, I experience the greatest pain I have felt. I cry. But there are no tears. Just streaks of red down my face. Pain, the color of red.

**Sami: **Sam shrugs again. "I don't know a lot of things Cole is doing. I lost my pack and three daggers worldhopping from Scadrial and I gotta go stock up. You'd think I have a huge stash of them back here, but the majority are at another base." She grimaces. "They were some of my favorite ones too." She downs a vial and looks at Phoenix. "You can make yourself comfortable, do and go whatever you want - I'll bet you could have fun with some of the stuff around here, but if you leave, take a spanreed. I'll contact you later and we can discuss plans when Cole gets back."

**Phoenix: **"There is one thing. Do you have any extra steel flakes? I have never had a need to carry vials around, and if I burned a small piece of my metalmind, it would not have the same effect. And by 'other base', do you mean Urithiru? I could always go there and retrieve your daggers for you."

**Sami: **Sam grins at Phoenix. "No, I've got nothing worth fetching there. We have a lot of safehouses -" she makes a vague gesture "- around." Sam selects one of the many well-stocked belts off the wall and hands it to Phoenix. Then she takes a different one and buckles it around her waist with one of her throwing daggers that usually resides in the sheaths on her arm. "I'll don't know when I'll be back, but I'll see you around. The sparring room is out that door to the left, so you can work on the targets there if you want to." Then she heads to the Shattered Plains.

**Phoenix: **"Thanks, Sam. I won't forget your willingness to trust me, even if it is small right now," Phoenix calls out.

He straps on the belt, downs a vial, and spars for a bit. He's really not used to using his powers to fight, so it is productive, but wanting. Compounding steel was the easy part. Phoenix felt his steel reserves swell to enormous levels as he stored all of his unused speed after burning only a small portion of his steel metalmind. But actually Steelpushing effectively was still very new and clumsy, and having rarely used his metalminds for battle, he didn't meet even his own low expectations. _I could really use some one-on-one training_, Phoenix thought.

Time to take care of business back at Urithiru. Downing another steel vial and grabbing a spanreed, Phoenix flew back to Urithiru. Back at his quarters, Phoenix gathered his newly infused spheres, including the large one from Wilberforce, as well as the strange dagger. Holding his breath and touching the body of the dead Coinshot spy in his quarters, Phoenix Elsecalls to the Shattered Plains and deposits the body at the bottom of one of the crevices.

Looking out toward the warcamps, Phoenix senses activity. He thinks it odd that some warcamps would still be active, with so many now based at Urithiru. His life sense pricks at him as he senses enormous Investiture nearby. Phoenix looks to his right and cannot believe what he is sensing. Phoenix teleports over to the area he sensed the presence. "Wilberforce? Is that you?!"

**Shadow: **Traveling along the plateaus is slow going. Even though I can make a fairly decent leap within the Cognitive Realm, I still cannot contract the distance. And my ship won't go anywhere without some sort of force. If I had been in front of the highstorm maybe it would have worked, but as it is I am forced to walk.

My friend floats beside me happily - I assume. He never does communicate that well, but I get a general sense of contentment from him, and his feathers are not ruffled nor wilted.

A sudden flash of light alerts me that someone has Elsecalled into the nearby crevasse. I pause and try to make myself invisible. I vanish on the Cognitive Realm, but my misty form in the Physical Realm only grows dull to blend in with the surrounding rock. Shades, I was afraid of something like this. There is another flash, and a familiar face emerges from the light. "Wilberforce? Is that you?!"

I sigh with relief. I was afraid I would be forced to use my fog bank to escape. "Well met, Phoenix. I apologize for my sudden departure earlier." I sense something different about him, however. There is a fuzzy tingling about his form in the Cognitive Realm. He has recently changed his spiritweb, and perhaps made new Connections outside of that. "Are you well?" I ask. "Has anything changed since I left? For how long _was_ I gone?"

**Phoenix: **"You were gone for quite a while, my friend. And by that I mean nearly a week. What happened? One second, you were right beside me in the cavern, and the next instant, you were gone! As for me, I have very recently taken initiative to forge an alliance with a very interesting group. One who is even now making a huge difference in the war raging through the cosmere. I have also...enhanced myself to further aid in my scholarly pursuits. Aerial views can provide a wealth of information, you know.

As for you, it looks like your physical form is holding up quite well. Well enough, in fact, that some Selish magic may be able to restore you to a copy of your old body, since you previously possessed one. As long as a digital stamp will hold, which I think it will, with your considerable Connection to this realm. I think it also very possible that you could keep all of your abilities concerning the Cognitive Realm as well. I know that's a lot to process. But it is really good to see you again, my friend. I missed being able to discuss complex topics and forgotten histories with someone so knowledgeable."

**Shadow: **I wave my misty hand around morosely. "This? I doubt anything could take hold of this form. Besides, the closer I get to returning to a physical body, the more I realize I have left to do. When I disappeared, I found myself bound to the highstorm. The Stormfather spoke to me directly, telling me I would need to learn Honor to survive. I must have found enough, because I still maintain consciousness."

I gaze across the Shattered Plains and sigh. "Nevertheless, it appears that I will be unable to leave Roshar for a time. Channeling so much of Honor's Investiture has imprinted severely on my soul. I can already feel the effects of his Intent. The desire to act, to make a difference here, to repay what has been given to me - that is not something I normally would associate with my temperament. In fact, the more I think about it, the more worried I become. I have heard about Shadows who, due to their significant attachment to one source of Investiture, have been unable to leave their homeworld. That is why I never before tried something as we did last week." I force a smile. "Still, it is good to be back and aware of myself again. I assume you can still take me places on Roshar with Elsecalling. Would you like to show me what your new associates are up to?"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix nods in understanding. "Of course it would not be so simple. I will continue to offer my aid once you are ready. Know that once you are bound to Honor, as you now appear to be, the consequences of breaking that bond can be severe. But having access to such Investiture has its advantages. Just be glad you are not bound to a spren of any particular order, as the orders tend to define honor in a much more strict, yet distinct way from one another. Unless...the Stormfather has not bonded you himself, has he? It has been highly speculated that the more powerful spren such as he may be able to bond more than one Bondsmith. Dalinar Kholin of this world currently has such a bond to the Stormfather. As for you being bound to this world...I can still detect with my life sense distinct Investiture not of this world that has not been overwhelmed by your recent infusion. I do believe you would be able to leave this world eventually, after this Intent you describe has been fulfilled.

As for my new associates, I actually do not know much of their current plans as of yet. But you are more than welcome to accompany me whenever they do contact me again. They may not even notice you." Phoenix thinks for a moment. "Well, no. They would probably have some means of sensing you, since you now have such a profound physical presence, and all that Investiture you hold is rather hard to hide from these people. I can vouch for you. Know that theirs is an honorable cause, but to some orders the means they use may be frowned upon. However, they're the most effective group I have met so far fighting for the cosmere."

**Sami: **Sam touched down in the warcamp, frowning. Her usual armorer was gone and she was going to have to go on a long search to find another one. There were a lot of amateurs out there, not one of them with the slightest knowledge of how to make a good knife. Storms, she could probably make a better one than some of those flimsy ones out there. Glancing unappreciatively at the nearby stalls, she shook her head. The market was a waste of time.

**Tesh: **I smile at Jay and let out a small chuckle. "Except for the fact that killing does not come easily to me," I say. The second and third Ideals of the Windrunners start spinning around in my brain. _I will protect those who cannot protect themselves. I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right. _"I only kill when absolutely necessary. How old are you?"

**S4S: **How long I lay there, I do not know. Bent over in the darkness, laying in the blood of others. It was their blood, their elixir of life, that had given me my strength. My curse of power. I extinguished my steel and iron while storing weight simultaneously, fully cutting myself free from the world. Just me, floating in darkness. But darkness does not dim thoughts. _God is dead. Man has killed him. And while there may be only one God, he has many followers. That is what you are. You are an instrument in God's unseen hands. You are Project Archangel. _What was I created for? My makers, what did they see me becoming? When you rip me down to my core, as was once done in a chamber with spikes, what does one find within? _Whatever you choose to become, remember what I did for you. Because when all is said and done, you will be thanking me for what I did to you. You will thank me…_

What did this man see me as? I never asked him. Yet instead of understanding my purpose, I had turned around and murdered my maker in cold blood out of hatred for what he had made me as. But now I understand. I am a man with a dark power to fight a dark force. I am one who understood that to defeat your enemy, you must know their art, even to the point of practicing it. And I have practiced it myself, as it is the same as all men who hold power.

Once they seek it, they achieve it. Once they achieve it, they abuse it. Such is the way of man. Everyone is destined to this infinite cycle. There are no exceptions. None exist who are good people with good power without becoming corrupt in the end. No one is exempt. Not even me. I was given this power for a reason. I have abused it. And only now, after my makers are dead and I am in ruins, do I realize it. I have power. I will not let others abuse their own.

I ball my fists, returning to normal weight. I burn my steel vision back to life, along with my resolve. Laying directly in front of my face, a blackened silhouette of my mask sits, covered in dust and blood. I pick it up, holding it for a second. "Thank you, my maker."

Skipper crawled through the dark alley, trying to stay hidden and unseen, his one wooden leg clicking with each step. Although it was only a slight sound, it seemed like each step was the earth cracking underfoot. This route was dangerous, as it cut through the Thrasher territory. The crime clan hated having outsiders moving through their part of the city. Quiet and confidential, this area was off limits to everyone, even nobility. But it was the main way to the south side of the city without having to walk all the way around the Outskirts. To most, it wasn't worth the risk.

Skipper continued through the alley, coming to a cross section. He leaned out around the corner, checking to make sure that it was clear to move on. However, down the new alley a shadow moved. A sentry. It turned at the right time, seeing Skipper just as he was peeking from the wall. With a yelp, Skipper jumped back. He started to run, but his leg slipped on the cobbles beneath him. Before he could keep running, a cold dagger was pressing against his neck.

"You move. You die," the man said. "Either way, you still die." He laughed at his own joke. The dagger pushed on his neck harder. The man laughed once more before suddenly breathing in a sharp breath. Then the dagger fell.

Skipper turned slowly to see a massive hook jutting from the man's abdomen. Blood flowed from the wound openly. His attacker slumped for a moment before hurtling to the sky, only to arc back down and smash headfirst into the ground with a sickening crunch.

A man had been standing behind the attacker. Dark, he was now turned toward the dead sentry, crouching downward. He slowly rose, turning as he did to face Skipper. A metal mask spotted in blood covered the man's face. No emotion could be read on his figure. But where his eyes should have been, a black blindfold covered them. How could he see?

The masked figure suddenly lurched into the sky without a word, leaving Skipper in the alley, horrified. He quickly got up and ran, not even scavenging the body of the sentry for much needed money or valuables. Fear drove him all the way to the Outskirts. There, he fell to the ground, exhausted. "Justice truly is blind..." he whispered.


	4. RIP

**Jay: **"Twenty-five," I say, then shush Tesh before she has a chance to respond. "Do you feel that? Someone with Investiture just came into the range of my bronze." I begin flaring my bronze, hoping to locate the individual. I scan the crowd, looking for unfamiliar faces, and then the person vanishes from my senses. "Be on guard," I whisper, clenching one of my daggers. "This in particular is making me feel uneasy." I ignore Tesh's eyes rolling at me.

**Tesh: **I roll my eyes and summon my Shardblade. Ani, who had been sitting on my shoulder, disappears. "Well, whoever it is, if they make trouble, they're going to get loads more in return," I whisper.

**Sami: **Sam frowned, stopping for a second. Something had spiked her senses. Scanning the crowd, she caught sight of someone familiar - _Tesh_. Although she didn't actually dislike Tesh, she definitely wasn't in the mood to run into her. The guy beside her spoke to her in a low tone.

For some reason, Tesh summoned her Shardblade, making a nearby mother cry out in surprise. Sam raised her eyebrows. _Probably not the best idea in this crowd, _she thought, watching the nearby people's eyes widen. Staying out of Tesh's sight, she turned away to continue her search.

**Jay: **The crowd around us stared at Tesh in disbelief. Almost everybody around us was staring. Then I saw her. "Look, just there. She's the only one not startled by your Shardblade. And storm it! Put it away, woman! It's not...normal...for a woman to have a Shard, even though I don't have a problem with it. and it's even worse to flaunt it in front of everyone else." I flare my zinc and focus on the girl's emotions, Rioting all of them - every last one.

**Tesh: **I catch sight of the person Jay spotted. _Samar Kazan. _"Storms." I dismiss my Blade. "I need to go talk to her," I say in an undertone. "Be right back." I dive into the crowd after Sam.

**Sami: **Sam recognizes her emotions being Rioted and conflicted. _So we're doing that are we?_ With a supreme effort she pushes it down as much as possible and turns to lock eyes with the boy. Tesh, storm it, sees her and dives through the crowd toward her. The crowd shies away from her nervously. Sam ignores Tesh and bores her eyes into the boy Rioting her. She's too used to being Rioted to be affected as much as he'd like - rusts, Cole seems to do it to her all the time.

**Jay: **She stares at me like a starved chasmfiend, with a penetrating gaze. "Well, rusts." I extinguish my metals and anxiously hold two of my daggers up to my chest. I reach into my pocket and slip a small nugget of gold into my mouth as well. Just in case.

**Sami: **His gaze starts to look a little anxious. Sam grins at him, seeing the little nugget of metal he slips into his mouth. Spinning one of her knives between her fingers, she suddenly scowls at herself. _Storm it, Sam. You can't get distracted by Tesh and her little friend's antics. You gotta find that armorer and get back. _Spinning on her heel, she turns back to the market.

**Shadow: **"The Intent may not wear off, but it is good to know some of my original Investiture survived the Stormfather's...cleaning." I shake my head. "In any event, I would like to meet these people. If they are remnants of the Knights, then something tells me I might not agree with them wholeheartedly. But again, even if I am not willing to do something in the name of the greater good, that doesn't mean I won't help others who will."

**Phoenix: **"Very well, I will attempt to arrange a meeting. How should I contact you? I don't think you could use a spanreed in your current form. Or you could come with me; I need to run a quick errand to Sel to clean up my spiritweb. And it will be quick, that I can assure you. My Elsecaller abilities combined with Compounding steel for speed should let me move through Sel with ease, as well as make record time."

**Shadow: **I look to my friend. "You know how to find me," I tell him. He blinks his symbol-eyes and I sense agreement. He flies over to Phoenix's shoulder in the Cognitive Realm, and somehow manages to manifest a bit more on the Physical as well. Perhaps his time with me has changed him, or perhaps he could do this all along and I never was able to see it before. "He can move across great distances with ease, if necessity calls for it. He can't communicate much, but he can carry light objects within the Cognitive Realm. Let me know when you're ready."

I look to the rising smoke in the distance where those ignoring Dalinar's call are still waiting. "I shall be over there. In the meantime, I wonder if you could help me. I want to keep the knife I gave you close to my person, but I am unable to hold it without...consequences. Could you perhaps construct a sheath for it out of something economical?"

**Jay: **She grabbed her dagger, then grinned at me and walked away. By the Almighty, the nerve on this woman. She stalked away with purpose. Without thinking, I throw another piece of silvery metal in my mouth, then breathe in Stormlight. Using the Surge of Transportation, I bend space and step so I'm immediately next to her. I then burn bendalloy in a bubble around us.

"Now, usually I'd just ignore how rude that was, but how about let's start over. I'm Jay - Allomancer, Surgebinder, armorer - and the best storming weaponsmith in all of Roshar. And _probably_ Scadrial. Now, my new friend over there..." I point at Tesh "...seems to know you. Would you mind telling me why you are so pointedly ignoring her?"

**Sami: **Sam turns to face the storming guy who just appeared next to her. She is not surprised at the Allomancer introduction - the nugget of metal confirmed that a while ago. "Firstly, you've got some nerve to proclaim yourself as the best armorer in the cosmere - and I seriously doubt that. Secondly, Tesh and I are not on the best of terms, and I don't see that as any of your business." She holds out her hand. "I'm Kerdice."

**Phoenix: **"Yes, I can construct a sheath for you when I travel to Sel. Ralkalest, also known as aluminum in most places other than my home world, is a very reliable cosmere-wide metal for blocking Investiture of most any kind. Be back soon!" Phoenix Elsecalls to the Cognitive Realm. "Preston, hope you can keep up, this is going to be a rush!" Phoenix Compounds steel and sprints off to Sel.

**Jay: **"Sorry, this is just a precaution." I burn chromium and quickly brush her arm with my fingers, burning away her metal reserves, and then I burn aluminum, getting rid of mine. Suddenly we are both drained of all our Stormlight. "I'll replace your metals tenfold for free, just come with me. You too, Tesh!" I shout behind me, and start jogging back toward my shop.

**Sami: **Sam feels her metal reserves drain away. "I'm not worried about the cost of my metals, you crem!" she says, grabbing Jay by the arm. Then she punches him in the jaw - just hard enough to give him a nice bruise. "And that's for taking away my Stormlight."

**Phoenix: **A short time later, Phoenix arrives in his lab on Sel. This new ability was turning out to be extremely useful. The Cognitive Realm was already a shortcut through time and space, and the fact that he could move quickly through and avoid the whole Cognitive Realm business on Sel by speed alone was a true gem. Phoenix gathers some ralkalest, and, using his jewelry tools, delicately carves a sheath for Wilberforce's dagger over a small, bright flame powered by Aon Ehe. Amazing, how easy the material was to mold by mostly physical methods, yet it was the most difficult to affect with Investiture. Finishing the dagger sheath, he sets it aside to cool.

Next, having booted up his system, Phoenix begins writing the program that would cure him of the spiritual malady that was certain to begin affecting him more and more. Soulstamping was an ancient art that at one time only a few could accomplish, but these days all you needed was the knowledge to code it and the correct interface tool to program it into your Spiritual DNA, as a physical stamp would have eons ago.

Now that he had a Connection to a specific Allomantic power, all he had to do was first rewrite himself as having always had that Investiture, and then write out the fact that he had spiked himself, and subsequently burned the spike. Sure, these things had actually happened, but his Spiritual DNA could be fooled by this magic under the right circumstances.

He wouldn't make a habit out of this, Phoenix told himself. He had only spiked the man as he was on the verge of death anyway. His medical equipment had shown him as much. Phoenix would _not_ take lives unnecessarily. He had seen the destructive impact of men who, caught up in their power, saw death as meaningless. The Dakhor monks of Sel, the one once called Rashek, the terrible one, not even really human anymore...Rayse.

Finishing with the interface and feeling whole again, Phoenix grabs the cooled sheath, inserts the silvery dagger, and starts the journey back to Roshar.

**Tesh: **"Tesh, you too!" I look up just as Jay starts to move. Then Sam punches him in the face. I let out a faint laugh. This is going to be interesting. I walk up to Sam and Jay and raise my eyebrows at Sam, grinning.

**Sami: **Tesh saunters up, raising her eyebrows at Samar for some unknown reason. Sam switches her attention to Tesh. "Hello, Tesh," she says calmly, "I got your little friend back to Scadrial safely, if that's what you want to know."

**Jay: **She punches me in the face. "Ow. That was hardly necessary." She ignores me and looks at Tesh. "Hello. Tesh," she says calmly, "I got your little friend back to Scadrial safely, if that's what you want to know."

My eyes go wide. "You've been to Scadrial recently? What is the state of things? Is the Lord Ruler still in power?"

**Sami: **Sam looks at Jay with an interested look in her eyes. "The Lord Ruler was defeated years ago," she says, glancing at him curiously. "The Ascendant Warrior came and Harmony rose. But that happened ages ago. Scadrial is balanced - for the time being." She snapped back suddenly. "You said you were an armorer?"

**Jay: **_How many years has it been..._I wanted to ask, but I couldn't seem to edge the words out. The name Harmony seemed to linger on my mind, like a distant memory.

"You said you were an armorer?" she asked hurriedly. My questions can wait.

"Why yes I am, best in Roshar - or so Sebarial says. I really can't tell with that man whether he's serious or joking, though. My specialty is weapons, and I do have a few items that someone with your caliber of Investiture might appreciate!" I gesture for her and Tesh to follow me, and make my way toward my shop on the edge of camp, both of them in tow.

**Sami: **Sam steps after Jay, noting the nice-looking weapons he has on his belt. Maybe he actually is as good as he claims - at any rate, there's no harm in trying.

**Jay: **I open the doors and lead them both to the back of my shop, where I have an array of weapons. Lining the walls are shelves, each filled. In the center of the room, a sort of fence made out of thin strands of iron, twisted in a pattern, was held taut by both the floor and the ceiling. On it were different pieces of armor - not all of them practical.

I guide them past the fence and lift up a rug in the corner. I down a vial of metals, using iron and steel to Push and Pull a mechanism under the floor, opening a portway into the ground. I gesture for them to follow and make my way down the stone ladder carved into the shaft. Once we're down, I use iron again and Pull on five thick blue lines. Suddenly, after a small metallic scraping, five individual lamps are exposed, spheres already infused.

I turn and face them both. "Welcome to my home away from home. I have been hoping to meet more Allomancers to share this with. By any chance, are either of you descendants of Terris?" I have a huge grin on my face.

Behind me is a room full of different metals and writing labeling each; full-on writing, none of that glyph nonsense. After the metals are quite a few more unique weapons and multicolored armor. "This here is my best-kept secret, and I'm only sharing it with you because I need your help."

**Sami: **Sam whistles at the array of weapons, walking over to pick up a very impressive looking knife. "You sell these in sets?" she asks, turning it over and hefting it.

**Jay: **"Take it. Recompense for sapping your Stormlight. Also, I'll do you one better. You teach me the way to get to Scadrial, and I'll make you a custom set of daggers with any specifications you require."

**Sami: **Sam tries unsuccessfully to stop a grin. "You got yourself a deal," she says, running her finger along the knife's edge and looking appreciatively at the thin line of blood welling up on her thumb. It slams into the wall beside Jay's head, making him jump. Sam walks over, pulling it out of the wall and spinning it. "It's a nice weapon. Thanks."

**Tesh: **I lean against a wall, my pack poking into my back uncomfortably. I take it off and put it on the floor beside me. _Teach me the way to get to Scadrial. _Like it can be taught.

Then a faint flicker catches my eye. A sword lays on the table, sheathed. I pick it up. It's long, thin, and surprisingly light. Slowly, I drew the blade. It was made of aluminium, and had a wickedly sharp double-sided blade. It shone in the dim lantern light. Both the crossguard and handle were simply engraved, the crossguard slightly darker in color than the blade, and the handle was wrapped in some sort of leather. But it had a beauty beyond words.

I set down the sheath. "Perfectly balanced," I say in awe. "This is the work of a master. And made with aluminum." I glance at the sheath. "As well as its sheath. It's amazing." I fall into stance. It had been so long since I had held a blade that was not my Shardblade.

Regretfully, I slide the sword back into its sheath. It is like they are made together, and one cannot fulfill its duty without the other nearby. I set it back down and walk back over to my pack. "We have a lot to talk about," I say, leaning against the wall again.

**Jay: **"Tesh, you can have that if you like it." I suck in some Stormlight from the spheres on the wall. "I need you both to see this."

I use the Surge of Transportation and make a couple of quick teleports across the room.

"As of right now, I can only go short distances, but I've been told by a...friend...that I should be able to transport much much further. The other thing I can do is less than useful." I take two metals, and, using Cohesion, I fuse them together. "Ta-da!"

**Tesh: **I stare at Jay. The sword has a much higher value than he must realize, but he seems sincere. Right as I start saying "Thank you," he starts talking again. Then he slides across the floor. I nod. "Transportation and Cohesion." I grab the sword and step onto the wall. "Adhesion and Gravitation."

**Sami: **Sam smiles a little, quietly watching Jay excitedly teleport across the room. "How did you get from Scadrial from Roshar," she asks, "and when? You've been away a long time."

**Cole: **Cole begins assembling his battle gear. Five vials of metal are placed into his cloak, made to stay intact even from Steelpushes directed at them. He latches two gauntlets onto his arms, filled with every aspect. His sword slides into the sheath, and is strung around his waist. His carapace armor fits perfectly onto his body, as if it was molded for him. Cole pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a set of coordinates on it. Samar would know that it was where he planned to go. Once it was placed on a table, he left the base. Steel propelled him towards Herdaz, where the base headquarters probably was.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix, having completed his journey back to Roshar, Elsecalled himself into the market of Sebarial's warcamp. Wilberforce's spren, if you could call him that, had led him here, which must be near where Wilberforce was.

Phoenix tapped tin and hones in on his life sense. He did detect Investiture in some people in one of the nearby shops, though underground. But it was not Wilberforce. Phoenix frowned. Did the secret societies already have Radiants then? Or was this a cell related to this group his new friends were after? Either way, it sounded too dangerous.

Phoenix took a seat in a shaded area and took out Wilberforce's dagger, examining it. It appeared to be some alloy of silver, but if it was, Phoenix had not seen anything quite like it before. Another god-metal, perhaps? So many possibilities. Phoenix had never met one of these Shards before, but they were certainly not all-powerful. If they were, Rayse would never have killed so many of their number.

"Wilberforce, my friend, where are you?"

**Sami: **Sam sighs a little. "As much as I'd like to stick around, I got a dozen different places I gotta be. So if it's all right with you, I'd like to commission some stuff." She listed it, then straightened. "Oh, and I'll need to hold you to your promise about replenishing my metals. When I get back I'll arrange to show you to Scadrial." She threw a spanreed to Jay and shoved the knife into her belt.

**S4S: **62.

I sit on the outcropping of the Church of the Survivor in the middle of Far Dorest. The rain is falling steadily, with the invisible lightning I cannot see, to the sudden beat of thunder. I can feel each chilling raindrop as it falls with my tin, while my pewter gives me warmth in the direct contact of the storm.

I look upward into the darkness, my mask blocking the rain directly, yet it seeps in around the edges and eyeholes. I'm completely soaked, and I like it. I always loved the rain; a gift from the heavens. A sign of cleansing and renewal.

I feel vibrations below me through the wood. I look down as a man begins walking to the exit of the church. He moves across the room in a pattern, to what appear to be multiple candles along the walls. The man extinguishes them in turn now that night has fallen. I can see a metal medallion in the shape of a spear bounce around his neck. This is the priest of the town.

I undo the hook at my waist as the door opens below me. The priest walks out into the rain, turning to close the door. While he works the keys to the chapel, I lower my hook down until it is right behind him, Pushing it downard to prevent the wind from swinging it. I hear the lock click, and I Pull up and back on the hook. The hook makes contact as it sinks into the priest's robes, pulling him upward. At the same time, I Push on his medallion, choking him off as he yelps at the grab. Through iron and pewter, the man climbs the distance to my perch.

I hold the man over the lip of the roof's edge in one outstretched arm. He's a smaller man, so his reach isn't enough to grab me or the building for leverage. After a few struggling and precarious moments of him swinging and grappling to try to escape, he slows in defeat. It is then that I release my iron, and the priest gasps for breath.

"You are a man of power," I say slowly.

The priest begins to shake in fear as his adrenaline wears off. He does continue sucking in air rapidly, glancing down at the ground below before returning his gaze to my mask.

"You can influence men to do what you say. You ask them to give everything they have to your cause, and they will do so willingly. In essence, if you told them to move a mountain in the name of God, you can move mountains." I bring the priest closer. The wind and the rain continue, hard.

"What do you want?" the priest whimpers. His voice is much higher than I would have thought.

I pause for a moment. I sigh, as I confess to a servant of God, as all of those who have heavy burdens and sins. "What do I want?" I say, before bringing the priest right up to me, almost touching my mask. "I want someone to prove me wrong..."

I jerk on the chain, which causes the hook to rip through the robes of the priest and into the back of his flesh. He gasps for breath with a punctured lung, but only manages a gurgle before falling limp on the chain.

63.

I unhook the priest, dropping the man to the entrance of the church. But I don't leave now that I am finished here. Instead, I lean back, feeling the cool rain and freezing wind buffet my robes and mask. It almost reminds me of a massive storm...but that was like a distant dream, in a distant land.

**Shadow: **I stay in the shadows, for the most part. My form, misty though it is, needs but a small amount of light to be noticeable. I think I have already gotten a reputation as a ghost. Which, to be fair, is not inaccurate in the slightest. Fortunately my form has not lost its malleability, and I can push into walls and hide that way. It is strange, however. I do not know what my form is _made_ of. A physical manifestation of Investiture? That would mean that I have almost as much power flowing within me as a Returned. If only I could learn to use that power…

I worry as I wait for Phoenix. After hundreds of years as a shadow, one of the first things I learned was to let go of my survival instinct. Eternal life is not as rewarding as some would make it out to be. Survival is not so important to me now. I know death will come for me someday, and I feel general boredom in the interim. Purpose, however, has come to mean much more to me. What is a life worth if it does not accomplish some greater goal? It is a lesson I wish I could have learned earlier in life, so to speak. Until a few days ago my purpose was to find a way to return to the physical world, but now that it has become partially realized I feel anxiety.

If I do regain a body, what will be my purpose then? Will I revert back to my more base survival instincts, or continue forward without fear of losing that for which I have searched for so long and so diligently? I set an unattainable goal, hoping it would keep my occupied until that day. Now that the goal is in reach, I feel listless, purposeless. It is a strange dichotomy, to want so badly to achieve something, but worry about what will happen if I actually succeed. I fear losing my purpose more than I do losing my life.

A chirp nearby starts me from my musings. I look up and see my friend perched on top of a vendor's stall, looking at me with one eye. "Hello, friend. Is Phoenix back yet?"

He flaps his wings and flutters out of view. I would follow, but the crowds would undoubtedly see me, so I wait patiently for my friend to bring Phoenix to me.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix is startled from his reflections by a flapping of wings. Wilberforce's companion was perched on some shalebark nearby, and made a motion as if he wanted to be followed. Taking this as an indication that Wilberforce was close by, Phoenix followed the spren-like creature to an alcove on the other side of the market. "Ah, there you are, my friend. It is good to see you again!" Phoenix pulls out the now sheathed dagger and the large, infused gem. "I believe these belong to you. You know, it is curious to find you here, in a market like this. Did you have anything in mind to purchase?"

**Shadow: **I smile. "I have thought many times about the first thing I'd do once I returned to the physical world. A shopping trip has always been high on the list. I grew up in a caravan, after all. Seeing the wares and the peddlers, the economy and politics, the variety - somehow it always reminds me of home."

I reach out instinctively for the items, forgetting I am only partially in the physical world. My hand brushes through the gem, but pauses when it touches the knife. "That...is odd." I look up at Phoenix. "My soul finds no purchase on the Investiture of the gem, but it is blocked by the sheath." I heft the blade with great difficulty, unable to raise it more than a few centimeters. The moment Phoenix lets go of it, the blade pulls my hand down forcefully and falls to the ground.

**Phoenix: **"Interesting indeed," Phoenix noted. "This sheath is made out of aluminum. It is actually a very light material physically, which makes this all the more puzzling. Your hand being able to physically touch it actually makes some sense, since right now your physical form is made up almost entirely of Investiture, much like spren. Aluminum is unique among metals in that it actually _blocks_ Investiture. I actually chose this metal specifically intending for the metal to block out any harmful effects to you of whatever Investiture is in the blade itself. You not being able to lift the dagger will be a problem. Why this is, I still don't know for certain. Do you need me to continue to hold this for you, or is this something that your friend could carry around?"

**Shadow: **"It might simply be because it is in the Physical Realm. Before, it was fully manifested within the Cognitive. Try bringing it inside and see what I can do with it."

**Tesh: **I step off the wall and grin at Jay. "You're a Willshaper, right?" I ask. Jay confirms my question, and I turn to Samar. "So, where have you been lately?" I ask, slightly guilty. After all, I stabbed her once.

**Sami: **Sam tightens her lips slightly. "...Around," she says vaguely. "The world keeps turning and there's nothing you can do about it."

**S4S: **Lord Revani worked through the stack of papers on his desk, sighing at the lateness of the hour. All that was left was one more ledger, then he could retire for the night.

The office inside his mansion was quite nice. Dark wood dominated the study, with forest green accents of cloth laced with gold hung around the room. A large fire snapped quietly in an even larger hearth behind Lord Revani's elegant desk and chair. On the opposite wall, two large wooden doors with gold paint trimmings closed him in.

None of this would be easy to come by. But it was easy for Revani. The new world was growing, and ripe with opportunity. After the town was founded and constructed, Revani had seen a golden opportunity. While many of these people were mainly farmers, with very little knowledge as to economics, Revani had come to this outlying town, there claiming himself as Lord Revani, an ambassador for Elendel. With his leadership and some forged paperwork, claiming him as leader of this small town, he quickly came to power, steadily growing this place - along with his wallet.

A new tax, claiming to be an income tax for the capital of Elendel, was one of his smartest plots yet. While Elendel never required this, Revani sent a greater part of the income as a gift while keeping the other smaller part. Elendel was glad for this surprise bonus, and began to help build the town greater at almost no charge. And slipping some money below the table to those who were in charge of monitoring the city's development kept him in power.

It was this continuous cycle that built up his city, helped the greater good, and filled his wallet. It was genius. And simple. The town would never know, nor would they need to. They were happy and Elendel was happy, so Revani was happy.

After another ledger full of positives for Revani's income and trade deals, he set his papers in a locked drawer. Then he rose and exited his study. He walked out into the dark hallway, stopping at the open door. This was odd. Dark hallway? The candles on the walls were snuffed out. Possibly a gust of wind blew them into darkness. But what was more odd was the lack of guards. They were to be stationed outside his office so he could not be disturbed. He didn't want anyone finding out about his secret.

"Greggor?" Revani called out to the dark hallway. His butler would come, that was for sure. But he didn't. "Greggor?" Revani repeated as he ventured down the hall. Rows of statues lined each wall, almost as if watching him move. "Greggor. I need you." Silence. But at the end of the hall, at its darkest part, something moved slightly. It appeared out of place. Where one of his statues was stationed, instead, a larger object was there.

Revani slowly crept to the window at the edge of the hall. Then he slid it open, spilling moonlight through the crystal panes. Greggor hung by a chain suspended from the ceiling. A large hook of metal, driven deep into the underside of his sternum and upward, held Greggor as he lay sprawled backward, staring blankly. A small trail of blood was dripping to the floor.

"Lord Ruler!" Revani said jumping backward. He hit a statue as he fell down at the sudden scene of death. Who did this? What nightmare was he living? What statue was this? The statue was wearing cloth, and stood in the center of the hall. Revani slowly looked up, before rolling to the side hurriedly and placing his back against one of the walls in shock.

A man stood tall, the moonlight illuminating his form. Old robes of black, torn and stained with blood, covered the man from head to foot. No weapons were on him. But that mask. The way this thing looked at him...it was as if he was staring Death in the eyes. And Death's eyes were dark steel.

A scream tore from Revani's throat as he dashed back to his office, back to the light. He dove into the room, turning back to look down the hallway. The man - no - the _thing_ hadn't moved. It only turned its head slightly as it watched him run. "You are a man of power," it said. Its voice echoed in the hallway.

Revani slowly moved backward to his desk. He grabbed the top of it, slowly rising to his knees.

"A man with power who does not deserve it." The thing turned fully, walking swiftly toward Revani. Unfortunately, it didn't stop when it entered the light. Instead, it almost seemed as if it made the room darker at its presence instead.

"I did it to help others!" Revani sputtered. The thing was close now. Its steel gaze pierced through Revani, panic rising within. It knew what he'd done. Somehow, it _knew_…

"You see yourself as a hero, yet you built an empire on the backs of lies." The thing was right in front of him now. In a sudden movement, quicker than he can follow, the thing lashed a hand out in blinding speed. It grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off the ground. "Lies that have blinded even you..."

Revani looked in horror at the mask. The grip was of iron, and no matter how much he grappled, Revani couldn't escape. "I have done m-more to help o-others than I h-have for myself," Revani choked.

The thing stared at him. The mask, Death itself. Judgement. "And you really believe that?"

Revani nodded as best as he could.

The hand tightened. "Then you are as blind as the others."

Revani was raised into the air before being slammed into his desk. The wood splintered, crashing Revani to the floor.

Blackness.

_105 _

**Tesh: **I nod. "And..." I start fingering the sleeve of my coat. "I'm sorry."

**Sami: **Sam shrugs. "What are you sorry for?"

**Tesh: **I look grimly at my companion. "Everything. But I plan on fixing as much as I can."

**Sami: **Sam narrows her eyes. "Fix? There is nothing happened you can fix. Don't meddle with the past - you'll do nothing but make it worse. Move on. Get a life."

**Tesh: **I say nothing, still fiddling with the sleeve. After a long silence, I say, "Well, there may be nothing I can do about the past. But the future is a different story."

**Cole: **Cole's cloak flutters with every jump. Heavy disks made for efficient Steelpushing fly to and away from him, keeping him in a perpetual cycle of movement.

**Sami: **Sam nods. "Yes, yes. What is your point?"

**Tesh: **"My point," I start to say. "is that..." Suddenly, I am interrupted by a huge crashing and clanging, and, of all people, _Celia _comes sprinting down a nearby passage, holding her Shardblade in front of her.

When she sees us, she stops in her tracks. "Don't tell me you closed the door."

"Well, Jay did. What are you doing here? I thought you'd be in Kharbranth," I say, more than a little confused. "Wait, don't answer that. You weren't robbing Jay, were you?"

Celia remains silent for a second, face impassive. "Who's Jay?"

"The owner of this place. And the one who has made all of this." I wave my hand around, indicating all of the weapons and armor. "And he's standing right there," I jab a thumb over my shoulder at Jay.

"Storms," she mutters, dismissing her Blade.

I walk past her, down the hall, and into the room at the end. Apparently, the walls had been completely lined with shelves, and covered in weapons and armor. Now, most of the shelves, along with their contents, were scattered all across the floor.

I walk back down the hall, towards where the other three were. When I walk out of the hall, I see Sam and Jay staring at Celia uneasily, Cel leaning against a wall and messing with a loose thread on her shirt.

I stop in the doorway to the hall and turn to Jay. "She was definitely trying to rob you. I don't know how she got in though." I shrug.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix Elsecalls to Shadesmar and hands the dagger to Wilberforce there. It is indeed lighter. "Perhaps your more substantial cognitive self can carry the knife?"

**S4S: **Power. Something everyone has. If they seek it, they achieve it. If they achieve it, they use it. The ability to affect. Power is change. Power is strength. _Power_ is waiting to be tapped like a metalmind.

The unnamed town; the same in which I was created. I'm near the center of the city, where some of the larger buildings stand. I know it's the middle of the day, as I can feel the warmth of the sun overhead. Yet all of my world is darkness. The sun is like an old memory. A dream, that when one wakes, they forget altogether. I am awake.

But I can still imagine. What would this city look like, to someone who had the eyes of a man? I imagine seeing the smoldering wood of the smaller houses on the outside of the city. The ones that weren't as modern, built mostly for temporary use, with collapsed roofs and missing walls. Closer to the center of the city, crimson flames burning down the larger, newer buildings. Stone supports, jagged and scarred black, protruding from the foundations of buildings like fingers of the dead, breaking from their graves. I can still smell the smoke and feel the heat from where I stand. And bodies. There were bodies.

A city in chaos, a town in turmoil. Riots through the streets. I didn't cause this. Men with power did. I just managed this power, channeled this cleansing. Guiding this required act along. This is my purpose. This is my calling. _Project Archangel. _

I walk forward through the broken streets, my iron and steel showing the broken structure and mangled bodies sprawled through the city, my tin guiding me away from the strong flares of heat from the still-burning buildings I pass. But my enhanced senses can't cancel out screams of pain some streets down.

So I turn down that way. Through an alley with only some dying embers on the ground, I move towards the sound. I will help them. The heat is still strong, yet I Push forward, cutting through to the other side to fulfill my duty. I cross the street, looking over to my right as I walk. More bodies. Less power. My work there is done.

I cross over into the next alley. This one is a dead end, as it became interrupted by the expansion of another building. It seems intact for the most part, providing what I would assume is a safe haven in a city tearing itself apart.

Everyone must be purged of power…

Three figures cower in the back of the enclosed corridor. I can almost feel the fear radiating off of them, as strong and potent as the heat of flames around me. One of them, a man and the largest of the three, stands up in front of the others, brandishing a long piece of metal in a defensive stance. Lazy yet determined, I tap weight and Pull the metal rod towards me. I slap the weapon out of the way with a pewter-enhanced smack right as it is about to make contact with me. The man stumbles at the sudden invisible attack. As he falls forward, I sweep my hand forward, smashing my open hand into the man's chest as I propel him to the ground. The man hits with a loud thud and a gasp of breath.

I stare at the man, crouching over him. I speak no words. None are needed. Slowly, I begin to push his chest inward, feeling his ribs and chest resisting. The man exhales at the force I place on him. He cries out. "Run, son. Run!"

I stop. Then, for the first time in a long time, I _see_ again. I look up slowly. The two other figures at the end of the alley remain where they were at the start. One of them, the smallest, a boy who can't be over thirteen, is staring at me. He is shaking. The other, a woman listed to the side, remains unmoving.

My body goes cold. In a city of infernos, my heart strikes ice.

I look down at the man, the father, and release the pressure from his chest. He gasps for breath and lies there, as still as possible. But he too is shaking. I look back at the son, holding to his mother's limp arm tightly, seeking any comfort, even that of one who is gone. Memories break through, more cleansing than any act I've done.

What. Have. I. Done…

I Push off the metal rod at my feet, simultaneously storing weight as I shoot into the sky. I can feel smoke and darkness envelop me as I try to escape. "Forgive me," I whisper to those below in the alley.

I experienced so much pain in my life. The loss of family. The torture of me becoming who I was. The loss of friends. The loss of identity. The deaths of innocents. And now this. I couldn't tell what pain was worse, me realizing how I murdered hundreds, or the tears that sting my spiked eyes, bringing more searing pain than any flame could ever manifest.

Whichever one it is, I still scream to it. Grabbing my mask as I fly through the darkness, I scream, until nothing more comes out but blood and tears…

**Shadow: **The dagger feels cold in my grip, like an icicle in the late spring as it drinks the warmth of the sun in greedily. It cannot affect me as before, but I can _feel_ it yearning to. I once thought the knife was Awakened, but now I understand it is less than that. It is a force, unchanging and unyielding. It will seek my life forever, and I can never escape it.

But for now, it is contained. That is well.

"Thank you, Phoenix," I say. "And thank you, my friend, for guiding him."

My bird-like companion tilts his head as if to say, "Of course."

"Well then, Phoenix, Preston, what is our destination?"

**Sami: **Sam rolls her eyes at Celia and the weapons scattered over the floor. "Storms, girl, you can't just come barging in like that!"

**Cel: **Celia continues messing with her sleeve. "Why not? I do it all the time. Besides, I was running low on spheres." Suddenly, Cel starts batting the air around her head. "Oh, go away, Ri! You're driving me mad!"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix nods. "You are welcome. Anything for a kindred spirit seeking wisdom and truth. Now, as for what is next...how would you like to come visit our base of operations in the Horneater Peaks? If anyone is home, I can introduce you. Also, with just a bit of steel we can now Elsecall there at record speed!"

**Shadow: **I shrug. "I might as well. I've gotten as far as I can on study alone. I might as well put it into practice."

**S4S: **I never really came to after my reawakening. I realized I had been consumed and trapped in darkness, but that didn't mean I was out and had been returned into the light. Consequences. Every Push has a Pull.

I had escaped the fallen city. The city that fell the same as I did. Through chaos and lies, I was now somewhere in the massive plains outside the town. If I listened, I could still hear shouts of pain and loss.

Long fibers, what others called grass, brushed against me in a soft breeze as I kneel in the vast field. Others said that grass was the color of a vibrant green, or a golden yellow depending on the season. Colors I had forgotten. Nature and beauty hide from my vision, as all I can see is cold metal and the shade of endless shadow. Some wounds never heal.

My throat continues to feel raw, with the flowing blood creating a thick coating inside, making it harder to breathe. The bleeding hasn't stopped in the back of my mouth. I still cough up mouthfuls of the vital liquid, spraying it onto the inside my mask before it spills out like a rain of red, only unseen to my eyes. The air I do manage to intake is freezing needles of ice as it rips past my inner wounds. Through my mouth the air tastes as blood. Through my nose the air smells as blood.

While some wounds do heal, they leave scars in their place.

Another mouthful of blood gets spit out with a racking, uncontrollable cough. My arms shake in weakness as I hold myself up from the ground. Nausea and pain combine in crushing force. I feel on the verge of death. Yet the nausea and pain I feel from my acts is almost unbearable. I am Death.

What have I done…

Multiple times, I tried to pull my linchpin spike out. Move on. End it all. Yet my hand would touch the cold metal on my lower back, and I would grow weak, collapsing into my own blood. I wasn't strong enough to end my life. I wasn't ready to meet my makers. I wasn't willing to die for what I believed in.

I had to live on. I had to live on, because I wasn't strong enough to die. An odd paradox. But if I could not end it myself, some other would have to end it for me. There were only a few who could do so. I had to find them.

Another sickening cough, followed by more blood. I slowly rise after the fit subsides. My body is cold and shivering, yet there is no chill in the warm, midnight air. I look up into the darkness above, holding my arms for warmth that isn't there.

_I can see no good, for I cannot see. I can speak no good...for I can no longer speak. I am dead inside and out._

I stare into the darkness, an exact mirror of who I am.

_I will die, that I might live again._

As I walk by midnight, a single rhyme fills my thoughts:

_**In me nothing seen, for I cannot be felt,**_

_**Cannot be heard, cannot be smelled,**_

_**I lie behind stars. I walk amongst hills,**_

_**Empty holes I will come to fill.**_

_**I came first. I follow after.**_

_**I end life. I kill laughter.**_

_**What am I?**_

_**...I am Darkness…**_

I walk the streets of the smoldering city, each step lethargic, as if I'm Compounding my iron too greatly. But I do feel the stone crack beneath my feet with each step. I keep my tin burning so I can hear the screams and smell the smoke. They remind me of what I am, like a distant memory waiting to break free.

My head hurts, even with pewter burning inside me like the fire in this city I kindled. Blood keeps expelling out of my mouth in sickening coughs, making me lightheaded at the same time. My breaths are slow and shallow, as if I had ran to exhaustion. But instead of running, it was a scream. I knew, the moment I felt the tissue inside my throat snap and tear, I would never be able to speak again. The blood I coughed up in ragged bursts confirmed that. I see no good. Now, I can speak no good. This is who I am.

I finally arrive at the place I first met Tesh. The place where all of my problems began. When I was whisked off to another world. I no longer cared about those worlds; they were never my own. I no longer cared about my world; it will never be my own. This is where it began. This is where it will end. There I wait, with only the wracking coughs of blood and pain to break the silence around me. But the sounds of the city still call to me. Echoes in my head of what I've done.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix responds, "To the Horneater Peaks!" Phoenix connects with Wilberforce and Elsecalls right to the center of the Vindicators' base in the mountains. "Here we are! I probably wouldn't touch anything though, at least not in the Physical Realm." Phoenix walks around the base for a few minutes and returns to the main room. "Looks like no one is home right now."

**Sami: **Sam nods to Jay and steps out of his shop, into the sunshine. She lets out an inaudible sigh of relief to be back in the open air. Feeling a need to get back to the mountains and away from the bustling busyness that was crowds of people, she took off into the air and headed toward the Peaks.

**Tesh: **The three of us look stare after Sam for a moment, then Celia says, "Well, I'd best be off." She walks over to the ladder and swings on. "May we meet again," she says to me, flashing a crooked grin at me as well. She then scurries up the ladder and through the secret trapdoor, which Samar had left open.

I cast a sideways glance at Jay. "Well, that was...erm...interesting," I say, eager to break the silence.

**Jay: **"That was indeed!" I look at her with a crooked smile. "About that blade I just gave you; I saw the look you gave me. I know its value, but I also know how to craft aluminum. I don't really advertise that, however, so please keep it to yourself." I begin collecting materials. "Anyway, I need to hurry and make these weapons and armor for Sam, because I'm anxious to visit Scadrial. Will you do me a favor, Tesh, and find the girl I was talking to when we chased after Sam?"

I use Cohesion to melt the surface of two metals, fusing them together, then throw them into the furnace I was now stoking. I look up at my comet-shaped friend. "Are you just going to watch, or are you going to help?" I could hear Tesh shuffle nervously behind me as I work.

**Tesh: **"Look," I say. "Honestly, I don't have any time to go chasing off after any teenagers from Scadrial. I'm sort of busy..." I trail off. "I need to leave for Scadrial as soon as possible." I look at the back of Jay's head. "Can I trust you?"

**Jay: **"I'm pretty sure that's a decision you'll have to make yourself. If I'm trustworthy, I'm going to say I'm trustworthy. If I'm not trustworthy, I'm still going to say I'm trustworthy. It's a bothersome thing, trust."

**Tesh: **"True. Very true." I pause. "Well, if you are going to Scadrial, you should probably know."

Jay stops and turns to face me, looking inquisitive.

"We have reason to suspect the Steel Inquisition is returning."

**Jay: **"Returning, what do you mean? They were in power when I left."

**Tesh: **"How long have you been gone?"

**Jay: **"Well, according to Sam...longer than should be humanly possible. When I woke up in Roshar, The Lord Ruler had just recently struck down The Survivor."

**Tesh: **I frown. "That was nearly three hundred years ago."

**Jay: **I sit down on my bench. "Are you from there, Tesh?" Thoughts of my childhood began swimming through my eyes. One particular moment came to mind. I was about nine years old, and had already Snapped, but had no access to metals. A man had caught me stealing and chased after me. When he got close, he swung a sword forward, and it hooked deeply into my shoulder. I cried out in pain. In a quick, sudden instant, with fluttering tassels, a blur shot by and the man dragging me fell to the ground bleeding. I looked up to thank whoever saved me, but they were already gone. I'll never forget that day. Coming out of my thoughts, I notice I'm rubbing my shoulder just above my collarbone.

**Tesh: **"No. But I have dark memories of that place." I start bouncing on my toes. "Okay, this just occurred to me, but I've been here for longer than I should have. I need to go. If you'd like to come with me, now would be the time to say so." I walk over to my bag and swing it over my shoulder, the sword still in my hand. "Thanks again. For the sword."

**Cole: **Cole landed on a hill, the last of his disks flying into his open hand. Unexpectedly, the landscape had no signs of human interference to indicate secret entrances. Steel lines, however, revealed a tunnel hidden under a boulder. Cole frowned; the tunnel had at least three traps in the small section that he could detect. Getting in that way would be nearly impossible.

A disk plopped on the ground, and a second later Cole soared fifty feet up and hovered there. He tapped sight and speed of thought, looking for anything that would denote another secret entrance. No other steel lines gave clue to a way in, but Cole knew that more than one way in would be necessary.

He soon spotted it, a patch of stone that didn't have the same color as that around around it. His perfect color perception was the only reason he could see it. Cole let himself fall and strolled over a couple hundred yards where the stone lay. There was no visible crack in the rock, so Cole summoned his Shardblade. In three slashes the rock was decimated, and the tunnel appeared. With a grin on his face, Cole hopped down it.

**Sami: **Sam walks into the base, tiredly glancing at the familiar tracks all over. She's about to head to get changed, when a note sitting on the table catches her eye. Reading over the coordinates that Cole obviously left for her, she sighs. _What have you gotten yourself into this time?_ Sam yells for Phoenix.

**Tesh: **Jay declines my offer to accompany me to Scadrial. We shake hands and bid each other farewell. I leave. I slip into the Cognitive Realm, and everything around me changes. The glass beads sparkle in the dim light, the giant spren float above my head. Utter silence. I begin my journey to Scadrial.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix zips around the sparring room with lightning speed, Compounding steel with his seemingly endless Investiture. He practices taking swings at the practice dummies as Wilberforce watches on with an expression of awe and wonder. _I wonder what I must look like to him_, Phoenix thought.

Unfortunately, even at lightning speed, Phoenix is no natural fighter. His aim is way off. Only if he came in at close range with his staff would his blows be effective. He had tried practicing with some daggers that were in the base, but his aim was very poor. Even speed couldn't fix some things, and he did not have an unlimited supply of Fortune to tap.

Phoenix stops to take a break and realized that someone else was moving around in the base. Then he heard Sam yell for him. Phoenix turned to Wilberforce. "Well, now's your chance to meet someone! Allow me to introduce you to Sam."

Wilberforce followed Phoenix into the other room. "Here! Just doing a bit of sparring. I, unfortunately, am in dire need of practice, particularly with ranged weapons. It has been far too long since I have honed my battle skills. Although if you wish to face me hand to hand or with a staff, you'd best not underestimate me. Anyway, where are my manners? Sam, meet Wilberforce. He has expressed an interest in learning more about this group of yours and Cole's. What do you call yourselves again?"

**Sami: **Sam lifts her eyebrows at the fact that Phoenix had brought a complete stranger into the base without permission, but she nods slightly to Wilberforce anyway. "Vindicators, but we're not big on the name thing. Glad to meet you, Wilberforce. Phoenix, did you see Cole before he left? He seems to have gone hunting after the bad guys and left us his location."

**Cole: **_Thud! _Cole groans, and flips himself over. The fall is much farther than he thought. The pain fades a second later as his gold reknits his body. When he stood up, he could see that there was a door that was meant to open the other way. Cole leaned against a wall, tapped tons of weight. Then he Pushed. The door flew off its hinges and clattered on the floor.

Suddenly, a loud bang deafened Cole and bullets hit his chest. He stumbled back, but his increased weight kept him from flying backward. Before the man had another chance to shoot him, Cole pulled the gun out of his hand, then shot him. Cole dropped the shotgun and drew his sword. Now that he was in the belly of the beast, he had to be ready to fight anytime. He opened the door that led out of the man's office. A huge training ground came into view. Some people flew through the air, others were on a shooting range, firing pistols and rifles.

One man enhanced the colors around him to the point that he was at or close to the Fifth Heightening. A man ten feet away hurled a ball straight at the Awakener. Before it could hit him, a strand of red cloth whipped up and grabbed it out of the air. Cole's eyes narrowed. _This will be harder than expected,_ he thinks.

A man who looked like he had Terris origins turned and looked at Cole. He gave a shout of alarm. "INTRUDER!" Within seconds, bullets and coins zoomed towards Cole. With a roll, Cole barely avoided the burst of metal. Before anyone could fire at him again, he pushed on all sources of metal that he could. He used several of the metal blocks in the ceiling and walls as anchors to keep him from flying into the wall.

Now that he didn't have to worry about barrages of metal hitting him, Cole became an avatar of battle. Filling his ironminds, he zoomed across the room with every Push or Pull. One man fell to a knife thrown so fast it was barely visible, another to a slash with enough momentum to decapitate him. After five more died, bullets started flying again. Cole abruptly stopped, and at least thirty bullets flew at him. With a Steelpush, all the bullets flew away from him. More than half of them hit someone. More than half the soldiers in the room were dead, and many of the rest injured.

Clanking came from a hall on the other side of the room, although he couldn't see any lines, some sort of machinery was coming in his direction. Along with that clanking, the familiar glow of Stormlight shone from the hall. A Radiant was headed his way. A hand grasped Cole's neck, then lifted him into the air. He began to swing his sword when his metal reserves vanished. Although his shock passed quickly, it was enough for the man's muscles to visibly swell and then punch Cole.

In a heartbeat Cole smashed into the wall, the sound of glass breaking accompanying him. "Ruin," he swore, with the realization that he was out of metals. Without any steel or iron, Cole heavily doubted he could fight a Radiant of any order. The clanking stopped, and he saw a giant gun that must have been completely made out of aluminum. Cole wasted no time in running to the corridor ten feet away from him. Some battles couldn't be fought.

**Phoenix: **"No, no one has been here since you left, to my knowledge. Although I did leave for a while to meet up with Wilberforce." Phoenix looks over at the note Sam is holding. "Ah, I am familiar with that area those coordinates indicate. Would you like for me to Elsecall us there?"

**Tesh: **Slowly, I slip out of the Cognitive Realm and back into the Physical. I take a deep breath. I look around. The area seems familiar. The street just next to the square where I had met Mask. "Well," I whisper to myself. "This is probably the best place to start." Then I see the smoke.

I stare, the smoke gushing up from the buildings all around me. Silence hangs in the air, as thick as the smoke, curling, spinning, as if to suffocate life itself. It is broken occasionally by a crackle, but I mostly just stare. Ash falls from the sky. This is what it must have been like before Ruin and Preservation united. The ash, coming down, thick as snow, laying on the ground. I am oblivious to the quiet crackling and popping of the fire. Until I heard the hacking coughs coming from the square and the building next to me exploded.

**S4S: **Another racking cough escapes me. I spit more blood, which hits my mask before dripping down. I feel a building next to me pop at the heat of flames, my tin picking up the sounds of shattered wood and crumbling cement. I feel each grain of rubble as dust rains down on me, and ash descends from the sky like in days of old.

But my tin also picks a up a human. Something I am no longer. _What am I?_ I think to myself. _Look at this city_, another part of me thinks, _This. This is what you are. _And to solidify that, as the building falls, I see Tesh's horrified face at what I've done.

**Tesh: **The wood and stone from the building flies everywhere, smacking into buildings on either side of the street. I duck for cover, and as soon as the rubble rolls to a stop, I push my way out of the pile of wood - still partly on fire - and scramble to my feet, ignoring my many burns.

I quickly pick my way through the debris to the edge of the square. I look around the corner and see Mask, slumped against a wall, coughing up blood. He looks up, and my eyes and what should have been his meet. For a moment, I think I see his eyes, as they were before the spikes had taken their place.

**S4S: **I stare at Tesh as she stares back. In the heat of a burning city, I am cold and shaking. My mind feels as thick as the smoke that fills the city. _See me,_ I think to Tesh, _see me as what I am. End it. End it all. End me...please… _

**Tesh: **I approach Mask, and as I do, he coughs again, spewing more blood to the ground. "Pain," I say, understanding dawning on me. "Pain, beyond belief. You want it all to end, to just cease to exist. Mask, _what have you done to revive this pain?_"

**S4S: **"What have you done to revive this pain?"

Losing my family. Living on the streets. Hatred boiling within me for years. Betrayal by those I thought to be friends. Being ripped apart by metal. What have I done to revive this pain? What have _I_ done to revive this pain!?

No...what have _they_ done to me…Slowly, I stand up, my pewter flaring inside, mixing in with my hatred and rage from years of pain. _You don't understand, Tesh,_ I think harshly. _You. Don't. Know..._I unstrap my hook and lash out at Tesh_...PAIN! _

**Tesh: **I see the change in his posture. He reaches to his side, and his hand wraps around his hook. I jump away just in time. I quickly get a reasonable distance away from Mask, flaring pewter as I do so. "_Mask. _Listen, I may not understand a lot, but I do understand a little. You want it to end, you want to die. That is all you want."

**S4S: **_Then end it. _I throw the hook forward, flaring pewter, pushing with steel, and Compounding weight, to hurl the hook forward like a dart at blinding speed.

**Tesh: **I see a flash of steel, and then Mask's hook embeds itself in my chest. _Pain. _I slump to the ground, groaning. I flare pewter even more, and draw in Stormlight, but the wound is deep.

**S4S: **I whip the chain back to me. Pewter and weight bring Tesh flying towards me. I snatch her from the air by the protruding hook, bringing her face to face with me.

_Do you know what it feels like,_ I think solemnly, _to have your body ripped, your mind torn, your spirit shattered, your purpose a lie? _I want to scream, but all that comes out is blood and a horrid hiss of air. _Do you see me now?_

**Tesh: **My vision begins to fuzz around the edges, and I let out a sudden gasp of pain as Mask yanks me towards him. The hook loosens a little, the blood flow quickens, and I quickly grow even more lightheaded. _So this is how I'll die, _I think. _Covered in another's blood, mixed with my own, in a world where both my brother and sister were killed. We'll be together, now, though. _

Mask's ragged breath blows across my face, spraying blood over me. I could sense it. The end was near. My time was drawing to a close. My senses begin to dull, and the pain begins to lessen.

"Mask," I whisper. "Goodbye." I ram my Shardblade through his stomach, and we both drop to the ground.

A few hours later, a beggar stumbled into the square to see two figures lying on the ground. One was moving slightly. The other was motionless. They lay in a pool of blood.

**S4S: **I watch as Tesh begins to sag on the hook, her life seeping away. _No..._I think, the last part of me that is human. _No. No. NO! _She was supposed to save me. Not make me relive my pain again. "Mask," she whispers, "goodbye." Suddenly a full blue outline rams my abdomen. I feel no pain, yet I sink to my knees. The hook falls free of Tesh. She told me her family was killed by my kind. The cycle has made its round. What have I done?

Of all my sins…

...this one…

...is the one…

...I will remember…

...The one…

...I will take…

...to…

...my…

…

...Maker…

…


	5. WE FIGHT FOR SECOND CHANCES

**Tesh: **Slowly, ever so slowly, I wake up. I keep my eyes closed, and I can slowly feel my life drifting away, trickling into a different place. I can feel it. I was to rejoin my true family...but I would leave behind the cosmere, and the family that I had joined. I would leave behind the exhilaration of Windrunning, but I would have Mahshi and Sazin. Then a hand falls on my arm. My eyes flutter open and I see a familiar face staring down at me. I smile.

Mahshi smiles back. He then gently scoops me up like a child, the hook clattering to the ground. I close my eyes and drift into a deep, dreamless sleep.

I awake to the sound of a closing door.

I look around the small room I am in. I am laying on a bed in a corner of the room, and the door is across from where my head lays. A small table is beside the bed, and my pack leans against it. It is covered in blood. A small window lets light in, but the light is muted, almost. Like the light after a fire. I try to sit up, the bed creaking, but I promptly collapse. Looking down, I see the same clothes I was in during the battle, but my wound was cared for.

_Mahshi. _Mahshi was _alive, _and we had finally found each other. I take a deep breath, quickly letting it out when the wound protests. A feeling of deep peace steals over me, and I close my eyes for a third time.

I awake for a third time as someone lays the back of their hand on my forehead. They take their hand away, and, in an undertone, say, "Yes, she is doing much better. Though how she survived the wound I have no idea."

Then a familiar voice, Mahshi's voice, asks, "Will she be all right?"

"Yes, though it may be a few months. But she will survive."

"Thank you," Mahshi says, sounding very relieved.

"My pleasure," says the man.

The door closes. I open my eyes. Mahshi is looking down at me, a faint smile on his lips.

"Mahshi," I gasp, forcing myself to sit up. "_How?_"

His smile widens. "Tesh, lay down, you'll just reopen that wound of yours if you don't."

I reluctantly lay back down. "Mahshi, how are you still alive?"

Mahshi looks at me, a deep sadness welling in his deep green eyes. The color my eyes had been, before I had spoken the Third Ideal of the Windrunners. "I try not to think about that night," he says. "Much less talk about it. Let's just say I got away by luck, and leave it at that."

I give him a little nod. "It's good to see you again, Mahshi," I say.

"And you, Tesh. Oh, it feels good to say that name again!"

"A lot has happened in the last few years," I say. "We have much to discuss." The next three hours are devoted to me telling him about the last several years of my life.

**S4S: **The city has stopped burning, with only the occasional embers of burnt wood providing light, like eyes of demons peering out of the timbers. The time of day is void, as the smoke has brought an early night to the village. Ash begins to fall now that the heat has subsided, bringing down white flakes of unmelting snow.

Bodies lay throughout the city. Some unmoving because of flames. Some unmoving because of others. Some unmoving because of their own choice. One of these victims lies in a square near the edge of the ruins. Fallen to the ground, finally beaten, and having found eternal peace, the ash from the sky falls on him like a burial from heaven. Because there is no magic in the cosmere that can heal the will to live.

But when I wake, it isn't with a gasping breath. It's a slow and shallow breath, one that comes steadily over time. One that I refused. I wasn't seeking life, as was evident by the lack of ragged breath or frantic thought. The blue lines return, as half of the world appears, destroyed and tipped askew on its side. I was laying on the ground, sprawled out across the earth. My body aches from that of a man who was dead. As my mouth fills, I spit blood out again. No wounds had healed. Yet scars were manifested.

I slowly I regain my lost life. Working my muscles and bones, I ease my way from the world of darkness back into a world of darkness. Nothing had changed. Except me?

I'd died. At the final strike by Tesh, I felt the true darkness envelop my body, my soul, my very existence. And I had met The Maker. The one who made the world I knew, and all things within. The one who healed a broken world that no one else noticed was wounded. The one whose name was Harmony. He spoke to me.

_"Mask, what have you done?"_

_What did I do? I did what I thought was right…_

_"You wish to leave the world of darkness you know, to move Beyond."_

_Yes._

_"I cannot allow this."_

_Why?_

_"This isn't for your own sense of doing what's right; it's for mine. You lost that sense of clarity long ago, when you broke the balance I created…" _

_But I tried. I truly tried! _

_"Did you really, though? You must right your wrongs. Protect those you would have destroyed before. Be a man of good, not a project of evil. Then, when you have finished your task, when you can look me in the eye and say you did everything you could to right your mistakes, then I will I allow you to pass into the Beyond."_

_I began being Pushed backwards, away from the Maker._

_"The world is changing. Something is coming. Something I cannot control. But if you can help me, I can will return the favor, by granting you a final, endless rest. This is the most I can do to save your soul..."_

_Please. Don't make me relive my sins…_

_"Right your wrongs, ..." Harmony said. A name I hadn't heard in years. A name I had forgotten. _

Then I woke, in my blood and my sins. Neither had left me.

Had I fallen so far as to have even God himself cast me aside? The One, the Maker of my entire existence, to force immortality upon me until he was satisfied? To live a new life in my old imperfections? It wasn't a blessing of renewal and forgiveness. It was a curse. I cannot fulfill His demands.

I can't…

I can't forgive the village with the dead priest as the dead priest once forgave the village. I can't rebuild the trust of the lord of the growing city I destroyed with lies. I can't piece together this city, the one I was created in, the one I was made in, and the one that I shattered at my own hands. I can't help a father and son bury a mother now lost, just as I never said goodbye to my own family. How could I do it now?

How was I to do this without eyes to see? Eyes to see the good in the world, and the good that I could add to it? Eyes that others would see, and know I was sincere in my actions? How was I to do this without a voice to speak? A voice to bring others together, to make something that would help those who heard it? A voice that others would hear, and be able to rest to, knowing that everything would be okay?

I remove my mask and place it on the ground in front of my face. The blood from my raw throat cascades from my mouth as it falls with a staccato rhythm, creating a light blue outline of the mask from the trace metals. The face that made me who I was stares back at me, a dark and emotionless gaze. Others see horror from it. I see a reflection. It gave me my name. It gave me my identity.

How was I to do this without a life? A life I gave to dark men with a darker purpose? A life I gave up more freely than the lives of those I took. I gave everything, only to lose everything. I have nothing. I gained nothing. I am nothing.

Nothing, nothing, nothing…

Aimlessly, I drag on the chain hanging at my waist. My fallen hook digs into the ground, creating a divot as I pull it toward me. I grab the heavy metal with my left hand before smashing the pointed top of the hook through the street and into the ground, the serrated end held up at my heart. All I had to do was fall. I did it before.

Project Archangel. The first to fall. I could do it one last time. I did it before…

I fall.

And instinctively, I Push on the hook, forcing me to the side of the weapon. I roll on the earth, looking skyward.

Only then do I realize that, no matter what I do, I can't end my life. That instinct is what kept me alive. That instinct to fight, to survive, embedded within like the spikes on my body. That is why they chose me. The makers wanted me to fight. And I fought for them. Harmony knew I could not end my life. I'm not strong enough. He sent me back because of it.

I. Can't. Do it.

_I see the good in you. _Tesh. _You do not deserve a second chance. You still need the first._

If I ever needed a second chance, it's now. Something within me snaps. Like a spark being struck. Stronger than vocal cords snapping, I change. A new feeling fills me. Not the feeling of motivation, but an instinct.

I remove my Inquisitor robes, leaving only the underrobes of hardened black leather. I detach the harness holding my hook, and it crashes to the ground. A massive weight off my shoulders. A reminder. It is then that I notice a small cut in my inner robes, leaving a thin white scar where Tesh struck me. She is no longer near. She survived. I know it. Another reminder.

Taking the fallen hook at my side, I rip off a strip of the thick cloth from the large robe before tying the fabric around my head, as to cover my eyes like a blindfold. I stand up, grabbing my mask in a smooth motion. A final reminder.

I begin walking. Where to, it matters not, yet I walk with an undeviating course. A fire reborn amongst the ashes. A reborn soul in a lifeless body. Although my throat hurts, and blood still flows from the inner wound, it now seems manageable without creating sick coughs. Is that possible? As I walk amongst the ruins, although I cannot speak, my thoughts scream to the silence.

_See me as I am. No longer afraid of what I was, not looking at what I am now, yet knowing what I am to become._

_What do I fight for?_

_I know what darkness is. I have lived with it. I have died with it. Now, I know what light is. And although I have never lived by it, I have died by it. Because there cannot be one without the other._

_What do I fight for?_

_I will live opposite the life I once lived. Where I fought for evil, I will reason for good. Where I reasoned for evil, I will fight for good. Light dispels darkness. Redemption for my soul is possible._

_What. Do. I. Fight. For?_

_I fight for second chances_.

The ash continues to fall, lightly dancing as it descends. The smoke still remains on the ground, yet as the mists slowly appear, night becomes evident. As the two thick fogs combine, I feel at ease. For the first time in my life, I knew I was doing something right. A smile. A genuine smile I had not portrayed in years. This. This is right. _This is right! _

With that, the Speaker of Silence disappears into the mists.

**Sami: **Sam nods. "Well, we'd better get moving then." She heads back out to grab her stuff and change.

**Cole: **Cole sprints down the corridor until an intersection appears. He turns to the right, barely slowing down; shouting can be heard in the distance. Concern flashes through him as he thinks. _All out of steel, so no Compounded speed. Not much healing is stored either. This could end badly. _

As he turned another bend, an exclamation of shock greeted him. A heavyset man began to pull out a pistol, but Cole slashed his chest. The pistol fell to the ground just as he stabbed through the man's heart. Cole turned to keep running, then stopped. He picked up the pistol, then began to run again.

As he was running, Cole checked to see how many shots he had. The gun was still fully loaded with six shots. Although there would probably be other guns that he could grab, there was no way to count on it. _Gotta make them count._ Slight disgust passes through his mind at the fact that he has to stoop to using a firearm.

A drop of blood comes out of his mouth. In closer inspection, one would see that his cheek was bitten. The iron in his blood forms into a tiny Allomantic reserve. A regular Allomancer wouldn't be able to do much with this, but Cole could tap nicrosil to get a huge, albeit short, burst of power. It might save him, or it might be a waste of the gold needed to make sure he didn't bleed too much, but it was the best he had.

**Phoenix: **Sam returns with her belt, pack and daggers, and nods to Phoenix. "Let's be off, then!" Phoenix proclaims. He Elsecalls himself, Sam and Wilberforce to a rough estimate of Cole's coordinates in the Unclaimed Hills. When they arrived a short time later, there was no sign of Cole or any base. "Okay, let's split up and search for anything out of place."

**Tesh: **As I talk, the room steadily darkens, the light seeping out. Finally, my story is finished. Silence falls. Minutes pass, but it feels like hours. Mahshi reaches over and takes my hand. I smile at him.

"Now you," I say. "Tell me everything. From..." My voice catches. I cough, trying to cover up the break in my sentence. "From the moment Sazin was killed, to the moment when you found me." I suck in a little Stormlight and force myself to sit up.

Mahshi looks at me, concerned. But I ignore the look, and stay upright. "Come on."

"All right. After Sazin was killed," Mahshi says weakly, "I honestly don't know what happened. But, well, that day I Snapped."

"Snapped?" I quickly straighten, then lean back again, cursing at the pain.

"I...yes." His eyes stare into mine, and I stare right back. Many people say that the eyes are the window into people's soul. No one knows the full truth behind that statement until they look into the eyes of someone they know well. Confusion. Grief. Joy. A small emptiness; the place where Sazin once was. They are behind the windows to my brother's soul. "I became a Twinborn."

"****ation, Mahshi!" I say. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"The need didn't arise. And I was very concerned about you."

"Oh, I'm fine." And as if my body is trying to prove a point, I suddenly run out of Stormlight. The blackness of unconsciousness begins to creep in, and with it the pain. I struggle to hold on to the sight of the small room, to fight the darkness back. The only thing keeping me awake is my determination to speak with my brother. "Mahshi," I say. My voice is little more than a whisper.

"Tesh? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Can you grab a few spheres from my pack and give them to me? I'd like to finish this conversation."

The darkness creeps in still further, and I begin to drift into the bliss of sleep. Then Mahshi thrusts a sphere into my hand. I choke in a breath; my vision quickly clears and I sit up again. "Sorry. Ran out of Light," I explain.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mahshi asks, looking very nervous.

I smile. "Yes. I'm sure. Could you finish your story now?"

"Um, yes." He grins a little at me.

"Well then, go on," I urge.

"Fine. I became a Twinborn with Feruchemical steel and Allomantic pewter. I discovered that a little later that day, when I had taken refuge in a small abandoned hut. This hut." He gestures around the room, which looks clean, and, well, very much not abandoned. "I have added a little bit onto it, though." He smiles again. "Anyway. I was just sort of fidgeting with a steel nail that had fallen out of the wall, and...it's very hard to describe..."

"You stored speed?" I ask.

"Yes. I don't know how I did it. It just felt right. I lived on the streets, except in the evenings, when I would come here, and slowly, I began to learn more about my ability. And then, three years ago, I joined the constabulary. I permanently moved here, fixed it up, and then I was going around to check on the fires...and I found you." He looks at me expectantly.

"You're very lucky, you know," I say.

"Yes. I am well aware of that. Although it almost never feels that way."

"I'm sure." I pause. "You will come back with me, won't you?" I asked.

"Of course. I'm really missing Roshar. Things just aren't the same here."

I smile again. "Good. And then I can introduce you to everyone. A Twinborn will be handy to have around."

Mahshi smiles back. "Sounds great. Just get well soon. Then we can leave."

With that, he stands up and walks out. I drift off into a peaceful sleep, content, even though there's still a lot to come.

**Shadow: **I brush up against the flora, feeling - in a sense - the items in the Physical Realm for the first time in a very long while. I do not know what I am looking for, only that I am...content. The force inside my spirit suddenly urges me out of this contentment. I need to act. I need to fulfill a purpose. Shades, it would be nice if that urging would tell me _what_ the purpose is.

To my right my companion suddenly chirps melodically. It is not a rare sound, but the excitement in the tones is. He fluffs his feathers and manifests a little more clearly in the Physical Realm, as almost a fuzzy ball. A fuzzy ball, sitting on top of an odd-looking tree. I have a Connection to Roshar now, so I understand that its life is distinctly different than mine. In fact, it doesn't seem to be very accommodating to human life - and that is saying something, coming from someone who lived on Threnody. In evolutionary terms, most life here has adapted to the highstorms, and survives it comfortably.

But not humans, and not this tree.

"Phoenix, come and see this." I walk over and observe the tree. It is not large, but its barren branches twist in odd shapes, making it low and spreading. The branch my companion is sitting on is one of the largest, connecting to the trunk.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix hears Wilberforce's call and comes over. Sam also hears the commotion and comes over. Preston glances at the tree and nods. "This tree is not what it seems. It has been Soulcast here, probably to cover up that cave entrance behind it." Preston points to a particularly dense part of the tree. Great. This enemy had Soulcasters, and pretty good ones at that to make this tree seem as real as it did. Phoenix fishes in his pocket for his gems and pulls out a large smokestone. "All right, let's Soulcast it back away then! Everyone back away and cover your mouth, nose and eyes!"

While holding the gem, Phoenix closes his eyes, and while touching the tree, forms a Connection with its Cognitive aspect, and wills the tree into a puff of smoke. After a few minutes, the smoke mostly clears and the three of them move into the opening.

**Sami: **Sam descended after Phoenix and into a dark corridor. The faint sound of yelling and shooting echoed through the tunnels. She grinned. "Let's get to the action, shall we?"

**Tesh: **Mahshi and I stand outside of the small house. We wear clothing from the Roughs, and we each have a pack over our shoulders, mine the one I brought with me. The mist twists around us as we begin to make our way to the perpendicularity.

Mahshi stares at the faint light of the pool, and I reach over and grab his hand. "Ready?" I ask.

"Yes." We step into the pool. The two of us emerge into the Cognitive Realm.

"Let's get going," I say, releasing his hand.

Mahshi bobs his head in acknowledgment. "The sooner we get back, the better. What I wouldn't give for some chouta!" He falls into step besides me, and we begin our long walk back home.

**Quick: **I was hopelessly lost. The landscape looked the same, but everywhere I looked, there was nothing but mist. Misty rock formations, misty ground, everything.

**Tesh: **We quickly cover ground, following the invisible path that is burned into my mind. "At the rate we're going," I say, "we'll get there in a few days."

"All right." We walk in silence for a while.

Mahshi points to a small speck in the distance, moving around frantically. "Tesh, there's someone here..." He looks nervous. Obviously, the Cognitive Realm has put him on edge.

"That's not good," I say. "Let's go." I start walking towards the figure, and Mahshi reluctantly follows. We quickly make our way toward the shadowy figure until we're finally behind a small rock overhang. The figure stands just barely ahead of us, pacing and looking around.

"What should we do?" Mahshi whispers.

"Whoever it is, they are either very lost, or very good at acting," I reply.

"Let's go with the former," Mahshi says. "On the count of three, we'll both walk out on your side and approach him. That okay with you?"

"Yes," I whisper. "One. Two." We both tense slightly. "Three," I say. We walk out from behind the rock toward the figure, who stops in his tracks.

**Quick: **I froze as two people appeared from behind a rock formation. I couldn't say why, but I hadn't expected other people to be here. "Who are you?" I asked.

**Tesh: **"Good day." I bow my head slightly at the man. "I am Teshani Kholin."

Mahshi speaks up in a voice that is full of authority, yet kind. A voice I was not aware he possessed. "I am Mahshi Kholin, her brother. We spotted you from a distance, and you looked in need of assistance. Is there anything we can help you with?"

**Quick: **Something about the strangers' demeanors seemed off, but I didn't want to give away my suspicion. If they were up to no good, it was my job to stop them. I burned bronze, the comfortable heat of Allomancy spreading through my body. "Indeed you can," I replied. "Do you happen to know where we are?"

**Tesh: **I relax. This is a human, not a twisted spren or a Cognitive Shadow. "Yes. Where are you trying to go? That I must know before I can help you. If you are trying to reach Roshar, we would be able to accompany you back to the Physical Realm."

**Quick: **I blinked. "Roshar? Where's that?"

**Tesh: **_Storm it, I do _not _want to get into this right now._ "Somewhere else entirely," I say.

"Wait," Mahshi says. "How are you in the Cognitive Realm and you don't know what Roshar is?" I want to punch him. The last time I shared with someone the secrets of the cosmere, they murdered hundreds because of it.

**Quick: **"I chased someone here." I realized they might have seen my quarry. In my shock, I had forgotten to ask. "Have you seen him? He's tall, with strange silver skin, and he wears brass bracers."

**Tesh: **"****ation," Mahshi whispers.

"Feruchemist," I say. "You were chasing a Feruchemist."

"Wait, do you have something against Feruchemists now?" Mahshi asks, sounding annoyed.

**Quick: **"I hope not," I replied. "I'm a Feruchemist."

**Tesh: **"Oh..." I curse, really starting to get annoyed. "I shouldn't have anything against them. Mahshi here is one too, and he just told me not long ago, so unless something drastic has happened, I don't see any reason why I should." I shoot Mahshi a glare. He just shrugs.

I can sense my attitude changing from the proper lady to the casual soldier. "Okay, so you're obviously from Scadrial. I have three questions to ask you," I say briskly. "One: how'd you get into the Cognitive Realm in the first place? Two: why do you need to find this person you were chasing? Three: have you heard anything concerning the return of the Steel Inquisition?"

**Quick: **I blinked in shock. The Inquisition? That was a facet of mythology. I got over my shock quickly enough to answer the questions. Even though they were pretty invasive, this person obviously knew more then I did about this place, and I couldn't see any reason not to answer. "I followed him here after chasing him across the desert. He had committed several murders in the area, and I came to chase him down. He fled into the desert. It took me a while, but eventually, I caught up with him and saw him flee into a cave. When I entered, the only thing there was a pillar of light. I stepped into it and appeared here, wherever here is."

**Tesh: **"We can help you find this man. He must be an Elantrian, but he might not be going to Sel. You could come with us to Roshar, and we could track him down from there. I have some useful connections."

**Quick: **"How far away is it?" I asked.

**Tesh: **"About a week's worth of walking. Then once we arrive, I can have us to Urithiru in a matter of minutes. Also, I have to know, how much knowledge can your brain process at the moment?"

**Quick: **I shrugged. "How well can you explain that knowledge?"

**Cole: **Bullets sprayed out behind Cole, forcing him to duck around a corner. Unfortunately, this hallway ended in a handful of feet and wouldn't allow for more running. Cole unwrapped the cloth surrounding the hilt of his blade. Several long strands, all connected, come undone. He whispered a trigger word to it, and suddenly the strands came alive. Cole readied himself, then dashed around the corner. He raised his hand and one of the long strands shot forward, latching onto one of the lamp fixtures. It then pulled Cole towards it. Before he reached the lamp, a Command was shouted. "Release!"

The cloth freed itself, then returned to Cole. Still in the air, Cole fired a shot at the farthest of the three men in the hall. Before it even hit, he smashed into the closest of them. In one quick motion, Cole drew a knife from his cloak and slashed the man's neck. Simultaneously, the farthest man fell. The one in the middle fired a single shot into Cole's shoulder before pulling a shotgun from his side.

Cole grimaced from the pain of the bullet. _If he gets me with the shotgun, then I'll fall and won't be able to get up if he keeps on firing. I've only got enough healing left to take a couple shots. _Cole tapped a bit of Investiture, then pulled the shotgun out of the man's hands. Strangely, the red-haired soldier dropped the shotgun before it could pull him off balance. Cole fired a shot, but the man dodged it before it even left the barrel.

"****ation! Electrum," Cole snarled. He tapped speed and fired four shots near at once, hoping that the man's movement would put him in the path of one of them. The Misting suddenly stopped moving, narrowly keeping himself out of the path of the bullets. Although electrum Mistings were much easier to kill than one with atium, they could still see every path that they died in, and thus could keep themselves from harm easily. Usually Cole would dispatch them by using Allomantic chromium, but with all his reserves gone, that wasn't an option.

Cole quickly made a decision. It took him a second to remember it, because he activated the cloth around his sword so rarely. "Grab!" Cole yelled while pointing at the man with his left hand. Five strands shot after the soldier. The first four were easily dodged, but the last one grabbed him along with the first two that had circled around. Now with the man held, all Cole had to do was flick the knife in his right hand at him. The knife caught him right in the eye, instantly killing him. "Release!" he yelled out, and the strands pulled themselves back to him. "I've gotta practice with these more," Cole sighed, before checking the bodies for vials.

**Tesh: **"Very well." _Unfortunately._ With that, I sat down on a stone and told the man of the cosmere.

**Quick: **I carefully digested the stranger's words, piece by piece. It _was _a lot of information, but it wasn't too hard to get a general idea of the concepts involved. By the time she was finished, I had a relatively good idea of the concepts she was speaking about. "So..." I wondered out loud, "Roshar is another world?"

**Tesh: **"Another planet, yes," I say.

**Quick: **I frowned. "Like...you could see it in the sky from here?"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix, Sam and Wilberforce head into the tunnel, becoming increasingly aware of shouting and commotion further inward. As they round a corner, Phoenix hears a familiar name yell "Release!"

As they move further down the tunnel towards the clearing ahead, Preston moves back towards the group in the tunnel and tells them, "Not to worry, it appears to be Cole, and he is still intact, but for how long...who knows?"

Phoenix leads the group onward down the tunnel towards Cole, while at the same time more shouting is heard in the distance. "Well, at least this should be stimulating, hopefully. I've always wondered what it would be like to mix the surges of Transportation and Soulcasting to enable the transmutation of objects from a distance. Shall I experiment on the poor fellows on their way to Cole? Sure, their bodies may resist, but I'm sure the air around them won't."

**Tesh: **"Well, I actually don't know. It is in a different solar system, but I don't know where..." My thoughts begin to drift towards planets, and their size, and the distance between the main solar systems in the cosmere. Then I snap back to reality as Mahshi lays a hand on my shoulder. "But you can reach it from here, the Cognitive Realm, fairly easily, though it does take a lot of walking."

**Quick: **"Huh," I replied.

**Tesh: **"Would you like to accompany us? You honestly don't have much of a choice, as I am not turning back, and even if I pointed you in the right direction, the chances of you getting back into the Physical Realm are very slim." I stop. "And if you came back with us, you might be able to help us."

**Quick: **"Help you with what?"

**Tesh: **I sigh. "So, you see, I am the founder and leader of a group centered on Roshar. We are called the Knights of the Cosmere. Currently, we are split into two groups; the Surgefinders and the Vindicators. The Knights as a whole work to protect the cosmere, but we prefer to do it behind the scenes. We work to solve problems that other organizations or groups are not aware of, such as the Knights Radiant or the Elantrians. The Vindicators will go to any lengths possible to accomplish their goals, while the Surgefinders will try to find methods that will cause as little death and/or destruction as possible, depending on how possible that course of action is. Recently, we have received evidence that the Steel Inquisition might be returning to Scadrial. Although Harmony has power to control creatures under the influence of Hemalurgy, the return of the Inquisition would be devastating to Scadrial. And you, as Scadrial is your home, might be able to help us further. And you might just be a worldhopper. I see no other explanation for how you got into this realm on your own." I sit back, looking at the man, waiting for him to process all the information that I had just thrown at him.

**Quick: **I _hmm_'d to myself, contemplating the implications. The return of the Steel Inquisition _would_ be devastating, but my instincts told me to finish my current task first. In addition, all of the murder victims had been impaled through the heart. I'd never gotten a good look at my prey - I only knew about his strange skin and his metalminds due to interviews with people who had seen him - but I did seem to recall some of them mentioning a large backpack...

"I think the person I'm chasing might be involved," I offered. "All of the murder victims had been impaled through the heart, and people who saw him mentioned a large backpack."

**Tesh: **"Ah, storm it," I mutter. "Our best chance will be going to Roshar and trying to track him down."

**Quick: **"Indeed," I muttered. "Would it be too much of an inconvenience to stop by my home town and tell them I'm leaving? I can't just vanish to journey to another planet."

**Tesh: **"I'm afraid that would add about another two weeks to our journey. But I might be able to find a way to contact someone."

**Quick: **"Very well," I replied, slightly annoyed. "Shall we begin now?"

**Cole: **Cole leans down and rummages through the corpses of the soldiers he had just dispatched. Luckily, there was a vial of electrum and tin. _I need steel and iron as soon as possible, _he thinks, with a tinge of worry sticking through. He takes another breath before turning to run the way he was going before, hoping to find something to restore his reserves.

**Tesh: **"I am sorry about that," I say. And I am.

"Well, let's get walking," Mahshi says. He had been sitting down through the whole conversation, not speaking a word. Well, until now, of course.

"Just follow me, and we should be there in a couple days," I say. "Wait." I turn and face the man. "Before we begin, you haven't told us your name."

**Quick: **"Tarenwel," I replied, a bit forcedly. I'd always been bad at simple social interactions, such as exchanging "how are you?"s and names. "Guess where I'm from."

**Tesh: **"Well, Scadrial, obviously," I reply. "But if you want to get more specific, I'm guessing you're from the Village, in Elendel. That's the best guess I've got, as you said earlier that you're a Feruchemist."

**Quick: **"Close," I replied. "I'm actually from Tathingdwel." After a brief moment of hesitation, I say, "So, shall we be going?"

**Tesh: **"Yes." And so we walk.

**Shadow: **I pull up short as I hear someone rushing towards us in the distance. My hearing, strangely, works almost the same in the Physical Realm as it did in the Cognitive, but now - halfway between - I am able to sense...more. "Phoenix," I caution, "someone is coming. They sound dangerous." I glance at my friend, riding on my shoulder, and notice that his usually calm eyes have begun shifting patterns rapidly. He stiffly clings to my shoulder without moving an inch. He radiates one thought that I am able to discern. _Death. Much death. _

**Serce: **Varaseel Demek tapped her finger to a slow, steady rhythm. She pushed her ignored spanreed to the side. Tesh hadn't tried to contact her lately, and Vara didn't want her to, but she kept it close just because she couldn't let it go. Vara sighed. _Why am I being so sappy and emotional? _She rolled her eyes at her momentary melancholy and sorted through the papers she had been delegated. Growing excited at these new concepts, her fingers gained speed until Flux caught her attention by humming. "Hmm..." he said.

"Hmm?" she asked in answer, corners of her mouth rising slightly. Then she felt something. Vara snapped her face up towards an open balcony that Tesh had randomly appeared on using Stormlight many times, but she knew it wasn't Teshani Kholin. "Mask?!"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix, Sam and Wilberforce round the next corner and almost run into Cole. Cole immediately snaps in their direction and appears to be readying himself as Phoenix shouts, "Wait! It's us!"

**Jay: **Having been left alone now in the confines of my hidden chamber, I began to work. I worked on Sam's armor all through the night and into the morning. There was a new excitement about me, one that I hadn't felt in quite some time. Sam had agreed to show me the way back to Scadrial. I stepped away from making the armor to take a break, and noticed I could hear footsteps upstairs.

I quickly scampered up my stone ladder to see that young Misting girl, Cena, who had run away from me. "Is your offer still on the table? Will you really let me work for you?" she asked, voice hushed.

"Of course. But we won't be staying here much longer. How do you feel about going back to Scadrial, Cena?"

Her eyes widened in excitement.

"Don't get too excited. From what I hear, it's a very...different place from when we lived there." I explained everything I had learned from Sam and from Tesh about Scadrial. How the Lord Ruler had been killed. How Ruin and Preservation had joined into one being, Harmony. How the world no longer suffered the oppression of a cruel god. Tears were in her eyes as I finished explaining. We had both decided; we were going home.

I returned back to my shop, ready to finish Sam's armor. As I closed my secret hatch behind me, I blacked out.

I began dreaming - no - dream was too simple a term. I began experiencing a vision. I relived the days leading up to the death of Kelsier. I relived the day he died. I relived my last day in Scadrial. Then I lived in blackness until I could hear a familiar voice. Harmony?

"I need your help. I need you to come home." His voice sounded so distant.

"Harmony? Is that you? How are you…" My words trailed off as I felt a sense of peace. I knew in that moment who was speaking to me like a flood of thoughts and memories. That day was now so vivid. My last day on Scadrial.

_It had been months, and we were hearing about this strange metal that nobody had heard about. I was searching for answers when I found myself following a soft voice. It led me through some catacombs where I found a dead end. I could sense something though, just outside of my reach. I flared steel and finally saw it. There was a room beyond, and I had stumbled upon a secret passage some thirty-five feet above the ground of this cavern._

_I pushed with my steel to open the hatch, and it slid open with ease. I mentally tucked away that contraption, in awe of the concept, then I burned pewter and jumped down. I began storing weight at the same time, so I sort of floated down to the ground. The entire room was made out of steel, but also had aluminum plating. That would explain why I didn't see it at first._

_I had to flare tin to even see inside this room, and I found a little nugget of metal sitting in the corner. The nugget was about the size of a small potato, and without thinking about it I swallowed and burned it. At first I felt nothing, but then I felt everything. I immediately burned all of my metals at once, and felt the awesome power wash through me._ _Then I passed out._

_When I woke up, I was in a new land, unfamiliar to me, and I eventually settled down._

Having this memory returned to me was a rush. Then I heard his voice again. "Come back home, Jay," Harmony whispered to me.

I woke up, drenched in sweat. I looked up to see my little comet shaped spren - I called him Streak - circling my head in concern. He never spoke to me in words, he just simply pulsed as if singing to the rhythm of a song. I always seemed to understand him though, almost like shared thoughts. I had been passed out for over an hour. Storms, if I'm being honest with myself, it felt like weeks had passed.

Well, I'd better hurry and finish Sam's armor. It was almost done. She had asked me for armor that couldn't be Pushed on or Pulled by Allomancy. I decided to take it one step further and make it a metalmind of my own reserves. This would prevent Allomantic Pushes and Pulls. The armor was an amalgam of metals, made with an aluminum trim, and painted a pure Kholin blue. On the inside of the armor, I created a contraption that would allow it to pierce a person's skin. One would just need to flare their iron and engage a mechanism that was attached indirectly to the armor, which would spring a lever inside and pierce the skin. This would be useful as another precautionary measure to keep the armor on. There were four compartments on the breastplate, which could hold a wealth of Allomantic metals. Enough to keep a Mistborn fighting for days.

The final touches were some large rubies that I inlaid in the armour, then infused with Stormlight. Inside, I inlaid twenty-four slots to fit emerald broams. Then on the shoulders lay a cape made of black cloth and aluminum chain link. The design was made in a way that her cape would flutter around like the tassels of a mistcloak, and the cloth wrapping the chains kept it silent. The armor was complete, and so I worked on the weapons.

Another day passed; I was using pewter and Stormlight to stay awake. At last, I was finally finished. I'd designed her sword to look like a Shardblade, yet substantially smaller. The sword was about the length of my arm, and was lighter than it looked. It was made out of a black steel, and had obsidian patterns throughout the back end of the blade. The crossguard was set with infused sapphires, and the handle made of aluminum. The core of the blade had hardened aluminum mixed with the black steel. This made it difficult to see with Allomancy. The daggers were the same; however, I was able to make a hole in each blade and fill it with molten crystal. Once it was filled, I carved out the handle to prepare the slot for a vial and added a small sapphire chip in each knife. The sapphire would glow blue through the crystal, giving the blade a faint blue glow about it. Perfect.

I packed everything up, then made my way with Cena to where Sam had told me to find the instructions leading to Scadrial.

**WIM: **The perpendicularity rippled around me as I made my way through it and back into the Physical Realm. The Cognitive Realm on the other side had been...strange. Far more populated than the one on Scadrial or any other sphere. Definitely something I'd have to study longer, if I had the opportunity. Though I was no longer sure who I'd share my findings with…

Eshe came through as I did, her light radiating faintly, though the sun outshone it. "Well, we're here. Wherever here is...where is here again?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure. I haven't been here before. But I guess it's another planet, around another star." I sighed and made sure my metalminds were still attached - most especially my nicrosil, aluminum, and duralumin ones. All of them were important, but the other side of the Cognitive seemed to feed on my Investiture a bit. And I wasn't wanting to be caught without the ability to develop a Connection. As for my Identity...well, I might need to be somewhat less like I was now.

"Well," I said again, after seeing that my metalminds were in place. "Guess any direction is as good as any other." I set out, looking to see if anyone else was there.

**Tesh: **The ship smells like oil. An unpleasant smell, especially after just escaping the fires of Scadrial. But we have to put up with it, as the cargo ship was the only one that had been willing to accept us. I stand at the bow of the ship, watching the glass spheres surge up as the ship pierces the stillness. I'm in typical Roughs clothing, which isn't out of place here, fortunately.

The clacking almost has a rhythm to it, and I stand staring into the distance for hours. My hair whips around my face, and the unmoving sun stares at me from the horizon. Then I realize I have company. "Ani!" I exclaim. "Why didn't you say anything?"

My honorspren stands next to me, looking small in the Vorin havah we had purchased at our last stop, where we had met up with her. We had, through some luck, managed to sneak her on. Her blue hair was tucked into the neckline, and she wore a large sun hat on her head, as well as a blue glove on her freehand.

"I just saw you over here," Ani says, tone casual, "and you looked like you wanted some company. The other two are below deck, doing who knows what. Why don't you want to go down there with them?"

"I'd just rather be in the open air," I say. "Ani, why do you want to hide your identity?"

She lowers her head. "No one knows I exist. And because of that, I thought it would be all right if I bonded you. And then when the Stormfather found Sylphrena had done the same thing..." Ani shivers. "If someone saw me as an honorspren, they would report me traveling with a group of humans, and almost nobody would know who I was. It's just simpler this way."

"I...see."

Iha, the captain, approaches me. He looks as all lightspren look, with the strange bronze skin coloring. But in figure, he looks like an Alethi, very tall and thin. "Young miss, we are approaching the final stop. From there, you may either travel on your own, to where you wish to go, or you may stay with us and travel to Celebrant."

"We will disembark at port, captain," I say, turning and looking the spren in his strange eyes. "And from there, travel to the Peaks. We thank you kindly for your service."

Iha gives me a nod, and another to Ani. He turns and stalks up the deck, into the hold, presumably into the galley.

"What a strange spren," Ani mutters.

I look back towards the horizon and see a peninsula stretching across our path, scattered with small buildings and strangely colored moving specks. The port.

**Cole: **The shock in my eyes must be even greater than when I had been Leeched. Of all the scenarios that could have happened, I didn't expect to see anyone come to help me.

Three of my metal reserves were restored; electrum, bronze, and pewter. Just using nicrosil with pewter and electrum, I would be able to kill hundreds. But against other Invested opponents, I would still fall. Suspicion pulses through me; the people I'm assaulting have access to Surges, possibly Illumination. This could be a trap.

I tap just enough Feruchemical nicrosil so that my bronze could pierce a coppercloud. Pulses surround me, but not the distinctive beat of Lightweaving. I let my guard drop and yell, "What in ****ation are you doing here?"

**Sami: **Sam saw Cole's predicament in a sharp glance - as well as his obvious lack of vials. _Rusting idiot,_ she swore under her breath, pulling a couple of reserve vials from her belt and tossing them to him. "Why else on Roshar would you leave your coordinates on the table? And how in ****ation did you manage to get yourself caught in a rusting mess like this?"

**Cole: **I catch the metal vials, downing one of them immediately. My reserves burst anew with power, and my instinctive burning of steel starts up again. "Those were just so you knew where I was, I didn't expect you to _follow,_" I retort. "I was absolutely fine."

**Quick: **I finished exploring the ship - the parts I was allowed in, anyway - and headed up to the deck. The girl, Teshani, stood nearby. Deciding I had nothing better to do, I walked over and asked, "Are we nearing port?"

**Tesh: **"Yes." I point into the distance towards the port. "From there, we head to the Peaks. We have about four days before we reach them, and it will take us about three to climb them."

**Quick: **I nodded. "So one week to get back to the...Physical Realm. After that, how long will it take to reach your base of operations?"

**Tesh: **I grin. "That depends on how much you trust me."

**Quick: **"How so?" I replied.

**Tesh: **"Well, let's just say that if you trust me, we could arrive in a matter of a few hours. If you didn't, it would take us several more days."

**Quick: **"That's a pretty big difference."

**Tesh: **"Yes."

**Sami: **Sam gestured at the incoming soldiers and rolled her eyes. "Oh, okay, you're absolutely fine. We totally didn't have to come - you had this _all under control._" She smirked and drew her knives, positioning herself to face the incoming enemy. "Whatever. So shall we take out these chulls, or you want to run?"

**Phoenix: **Phoenix turns to the direction they had come, hearing shouting.

Preston remarks, "I do not believe that running is an option any longer, seeing as something lining this cavern is blocking our ability to Elsecall to a new location, unless you want to go to Shadesmar…"

"Too dangerous in this area of Roshar. Besides, I am curious as to what lies ahead." Phoenix hefts up his new staff and fingers the gemstones in his satchel. "Well, it looks like we fight then!"

**Fire: **Rathil stood at the tip of the crater, looking down into the top of the Horneater Peaks, looking into the village and the hot spring at its center. Scarcely populated, this one was, even considering the general state of all the Peaks right now. There were fewer Horneaters on all of them at the present time.

Of course, that was to be expected of them and any other civilization on Roshar. The world was ending, after all. The Voidbringers had returned. And who was there to stop them? A fledgling band of Knights Radiant who dared to be led by the storming Blackthorn. No, there was no chance of that stopping the Voidbringers. They'd probably just break the world down even faster with someone like that leading them.

Rathil cursed silently. First Scadrial, now Roshar? How many worlds would end before it would finally be enough? Before all the pain went away? Before Rathil would finally meet his own end? Would the entire cosmere meet its death before he finally came to his own miserable end? _Why did everything have to die?_

Why did they have to die? Rathil couldn't handle the end of two Shardworlds. His world had already ended time and time again before. Every time everyone he loved died. The pain would never go away. The cosmere would just keep on dying and he would keep on moving on to new worlds, vainly searching for some greater purpose before he finally died too. Unless...he died before any of that. If he just died now, all would change…

_No_. Rathil shook that thought out of his head. He was never going to attempt suicide. Not again. He'd been promising himself for all his centuries of life since he'd Snapped that he would never try to kill himself again. But that didn't keep the inclinations away. The whispering thoughts that offered sweet relief. They'd started coming more often since that last crew had all been slaughtered away. Slaughtered by none other than the cremhole who dared to call himself the leader of the Knights Radiant. Ash and storms curse the Blackthorn. Curse the Voidbringers. Curse the Steel Inquisitors and the Final Empire. Curse the choking ashes and mists. Curse the storms. Curse all the pain in the cosmere and all those who caused it!

Rathil let his hate for the pain and death simmer within him as he trudged through the seemingly empty village to the pool down below. He absently fingered the precious dagger in his coat pocket. His favorite knife, it was. He'd had it for...about two hundred years now, so he'd long since banished the thoughts of running himself through with it. The knife was perfect for use across worlds, as its blade was made from the perfect fusion of silver and aluminum. He'd bought it at great expense from a very skilled craftsman on Threnody before he'd ever returned to Roshar.

Threnody...yes...maybe he'd go there after getting out of here. It wasn't like he could just stay in the Cognitive Realm for the rest of his life. Yes, he could go live in the forest-covered Threnody until that world finished ending too. It was bound to at some point with the Evil in its Homeland. Like the whole cosmere was ending and no one could do anything about it…

Rathil reached the edge of the pool, feeling the warmth ooze from its waters and wash over him. That heat felt good compared to the storming cold of the rest of the Peak. He just had to go into the Pool now and swim down. Down through the warm water into the thicker, Invested, _living _water, then finally until he crossed the threshold and landed on obsidian ground. Obsidian. Now _that _would be a familiar old sight. It reminded him of his black daggers he'd had on Scadrial so long ago.

He stepped a foot into the water. "Goodbye, Roshar," he muttered as he stepped in farther. "Mist, ash, and storms curse you all for dying on me." He didn't care who he was speaking to. He was talking to everyone. Everything.

It was up to his thighs now. Time for yet another blind foray into the Cognitive Realm, going off to exploring other worlds while carrying the vain hope that he could find a purpose in life yet again. He chuckled at that thought. What purpose did he have now? What purpose could he have? What purpose had he ever had that hadn't eventually died away other than to live while everyone he knew died? That was the case with Scadrial, and now it was the case with Roshar! He hadn't been on Threnody long enough for that to be a problem. Maybe that would soon change.

He continued to finger his dagger as the water reached his waist. With his other hand he felt for the lit spheres in his pocket. He kept them there with him just in case. Just in case he needed to breathe in Stormlight when things got dangerous. Which they probably would, as usual. As the water crept near to his chest and the ground began slipping beneath him, he felt the sudden urge to drown himself in it. He shoved that urge away with annoyance, then closed his eyes and readied himself to dive forward and swim down into the perpendicularity. He let out one last curse to Roshar and dove.

He swam downward to the best of his ability until he felt himself touch the living water, the part that was obviously Invested. It was the part of the water where Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual came together. He'd grown familiar with all three of those Realmatic aspects. Physical and Cognitive from constant traversal over them, and Spiritual from his deep connection to the Spiritual Realm that came as a result of being an atium savant with a very, _very _broken soul. Thus the water felt familiar to him. He continued swimming, feeling the pressure come down on him, shoving him further until…

Land. Obsidian ground.

**WIM: **There didn't seem to be anyone near the waters. Only strange figures that danced in her vision - things that seemed to pop out of the air. Strange beings one and all. She tapped her tinmind for hearing, but didn't hear much...but, no, there was something. Someone. On the other side of the hill. Qwydyn ran back up the hill as she heard this. As she crested the hill, she saw the man sink into the waters of the perpendicularity. Had it been someone who looked as if bathing, she'd have stopped them...but he knew what he was doing. And so did she.

She stepped towards the water and sank in, willing herself and her seon through their bond back into the Cognitive Realm. She had just gotten here, but there didn't seem to be a lot of people on this side. Maybe they all had decided to take a vacation to the otherworld - it did seem populated, more so than the Cognitive reflections of many realms, most especially her home. She slid through the water and onto the other side, facing the strange world with its strange sun once again, looking for the stranger and for any other humans she can find.

**Tesh: **We stand like that for some time. Then we draw into the port. The four of us, Mahshi having come up from below deck, stood by the railing as the sailors lowered the gangplank.

**Fire: **Rathil looked around the obsidian plateau, seeing an ocean of beads in all directions dotted here and there with Shadesmar spren and even a few boats. He just needed to stowaway or hitchhike on one of them to get away from here, in the hopes that a few Voidbringers weren't already waiting for him on this side. Which there probably were, with his luck. If that was the case, at least he'd die fighting off a few of ****ation's creatures. Then whatever God that lay Beyond would maybe have a bit of mercy for him. He walked to one edge of the plateau, which seemed to be in the shape of a dock of sorts. Nope. No Voidbringers here. No nothing here. The plateau was empty. He was alone. As he usually was. Now all he had to do was eat the few tubers he'd brought along, resist the urge to throw himself into the sea of beads, and wait for a boat. They tended to dock here sometimes, right? It was only a matter of time before -

He heard a splash from behind him as someone fell through the water and landed on the ground not too far behind him. Someone had followed after him. Rathil spun around, whipping out the silver-aluminum dagger, ready to ram into the face of whoever it was. Was someone tailing him? Was it another worldhopper? A sightseer? Or perhaps an assassin? Whoever it was, they had crossed into Shadesmar after him and he needed to be ready to kill them at a moment's notice. He wasn't taking any chances.

It was...a woman? "Who in ****ation are you?" he yelled to her, readying to throw the knife the moment she made an offensive move.

**Tesh: **We bid the captain farewell and slip into the city. We stock up on supplies, then set up camp a few miles from the port. The camp consists of a small mound of supplies, three bedrolls, three humans, and one honorspren. "I need to tell you two something," I say, sitting on my bedroll, facing the other two. "Mahshi will be the only one to understand." I turn to him. "The Voidbringers have returned as well."

**Quick: **"That sounds delightful," I commented.

**WIM: **Qwydyn slipped through the perpendicularity and landed on the plateau on the other side to see the man she spotted before. As well as the knife he was readying. She raised her hands to show she was unarmed.

Inwardly, she drew upon one of her zincminds, allowing her to assess the situation more quickly. He seemed more startled than murderous, she thought - not trying to kill anyone who followed just for that, but being ready for it. But what was more interesting was the knife's composition - the shine of silver and aluminium. Silver hadn't been that valuable in a lot of places for its properties of magic, except that one world with the shades - Threnody - but it also was Feruchemically neutral, which was intriguing. But aluminium - that was a rare treat indeed. She had a couple small aluminiumminds, but it was a rare metal in the cosmere - and tended to interfere with Investiture, as her coppermind reminded her when she drew upon it. In fact, only Feruchemy seemed to have found a use for the metal in the few things she'd studied. A perfect weapon for killing Invested beings.

_But hopefully not needed here,_ she thought as she started to speak, tapping duralumin to Connect to the realm. "Just a lost traveler. Or, not lost so much not really sure where I am. Not here to harm you; honestly, I was just looking for someone after being stuck up on that hill for so long."

"Well," said the bouncing ball of light, "You had me, ma'am."

"Not now, Eshe," she whispered to her side. Then she turned back to the man. "My name is Qwydyn. As I said, I'm a traveler, and a Worldkeeper, if that word means anything here."

**Fire: **Rathil cocked an eyebrow. "Worldkeeper?" He'd heard of there being other worldhoppers like him, but the name Worldkeeper had no familiarity with him. He kept the knife raised toward the young woman. She didn't seem to want to hurt him, and she was unarmed, but she wasn't afraid of him either. Just cautious. Good enough. She didn't seem to mean any harm. Rathil tentatively lowered the knife. Something seemed familiar about this woman, though he couldn't quite discern what...Terris. That was it. She looked like a Terriswoman. Impossible! They had all died with Scadrial! Unless…

Unless a few other Scadrians had made it off the world before it drowned in ash and mist. Wandering for centuries on other worlds. He assumed that to be the case with her, as the floating ball of light looked completely familiar as well. It didn't seem to be a spren, and if it was, it was unlike any he had seen before. But no, he was in Shadesmar. If it was a spren, it would have looked more...complete. The woman was also speaking in Alethi, which had become Rathil's first language across the centuries.

He closed his eyes so he wouldn't see her mouth moving when she spoke to him again. Otherwise he would have precognitively known what she would say before she even said it. A side effect of atium savantism that had its ups and downs depending on the occasion. It had occurred to a much lesser extent on Roshar, but was in fuller effect here in Shadesmar.

He stood up straight and put his hands behind his back, keeping his eyes closed. He needed to show her that he meant her no harm as well. And he needed to take charge of the situation, as he'd done with people across his life. "What are you doing here?" he asked sternly. "And why do you look like a Terriswoman? And what is that - thing?" He nodded toward the ball of light. "If you're not here to harm me, then I'd like answers."

**WIM: **Watching the other man turn and shift postures let Qwydyn relax a little. But the word Terriswoman caused her to perk up. He knew about Scadrial and Terris? "I, uh, am a woman from Terris. That would explain why I look like one, I think. I'm here because...well..." She sighed. "I'm here because I got home and saw the whole world covered in ash and mist. I got sick for a bit, and as soon as I was well I found my way back to the Perpendicularity and left in a direction that led me away. And that led me here, in turn. As for Eshe, she's a seon...sort of a Cognitive being like these strange creatures that you have here, but from another world. I think it's called Sel? And speaking of worlds...what is this one called? It's my first time in this part of the cosmere."

**Jay: **After packing up Sam's armor, I made my way toward the Horneater Peaks. I sucked in some Stormlight and focused. I needed to transport myself and Cena long distances. My comet-like friend, Streak, pulsed, and after a few pulses I closed my eyes. I could sense my heartbeat matching his pulses, and I pictured the Peaks. I had only ever been there once when looking for metals, but I remembered the beautiful sights. The Horneater Peaks were a wonder in and of themselves. If you strayed too far away from those peaks, one could freeze to death. Similar to the lakes of Alethkar, wildlife was abundant due to the height of the Peaks.

In an instant, there was a whooshing sound, followed by a jolt in my stomach. I was burning pewter, or I would have puked. Cena wasn't as lucky; she was standing next to me, puking over a...was that a rockbud? That thing was enormous! I took a step back and it finally clicked. I had transported myself, Cena, and all of our bags to the Horneater Peaks.

**Fire: **Rathil sighed. So she'd seen Scadrial's final miserable days as well. Which meant she had to be as old as him. She looked young though, and appeared to act as such. So much talking...but at least she'd answered all his questions. Not that he had any real care for the...see-on Cognitive Shadow thing, he was just curious. Though the mention of another planet called Sel...that was intriguing. Perhaps he could get this woman to take him there. In the event that it was a better choice than Threnody.

He opened his eyes. "Terris, huh? Well, you're the first I've seen in centuries. This world is Roshar, yet another dying Shardworld in the cosmere. I'd advise you leave this place as soon as you can just as I am. It's about to end just like Scadrial did. It seems you were lucky enough to escape that. Now tell me," he said, turning to look at the small white sun in the horizon, "what's a Worldkeeper and how did you end up wandering aimlessly about the cosmere? I'd like to get some answers before leaving this world."

**WIM: **Qwydyn shuddered as the man mentioned Scadrial, and the centuries that had passed. "It wasn't always like that; evidently somewhere in my journey, I got stuck on a world or in a part of the Cognitive Realm where time went by much faster. As for a Worldkeeper...we are, or I guess were, the...oh, wait." She shook her head. "Sorry - I got my words mixed up there. I'm a Worldbringer. Sometimes we're called Keepers by outsiders. I had to explain that a few times over the years...guess I got the two mixed up, being away for so long. And as for why I'm here...well, the other Keepers told me stories about worlds beyond our own, and I just got curious and started out. I've been to a lot - Nalthis, Sel, Threnody...barely managed to get on and off Taldain after an accident in the Cognitive...and then when I got off Scadrial I decided I'd just walk in a random direction and ended up here."

**Fire: **Rathil frowned, turning to her. Not because he hadn't heard of Sel, Nalthis, or Tall-dane, but because of what she said about Scadrial and getting stuck in a place where time moved faster. That had happened to him at one point when he'd first tried getting to the Physical Realm on Roshar. While he had technically been on that world for two centuries, it had felt like only a few decades until he'd fully manifested. It was one of the reasons he hadn't aged much over the years. That and the secret to immortality that White-Hair had taught him, which he was to reveal to none. But getting time-stuck in Shadesmar could happen to anyone and was beside the point. This lady Qwydyn had mentioned coming to Scadrial _recently_. Impossible.

"Wait a moment," he said. "You said you left Scadrial _after_ all those places. How could you return to a world that's been destroyed? When did you first leave it?" It almost seemed that she was suggesting…but no. That couldn't be possible. How could that pile of mounting ash have survived the certain death he'd watched befall it? He was just deluding himself in even having that notion.

**WIM: **"Well...when I _first_ left it, it wasn't anything like that. It was green, lush, still peaceful. I wasn't even sure I'd returned home when I got back there." She shuddered, remembering how wrong everything was - brown and black plants, ash everywhere, a large red sun and choking mist. "That said, I don't know how long I've been gone. Definitely longer than it feels. But...well… Time's funny like that, I guess."

She didn't mention the other thing. Her copperminds had no memories from some of the times she was gone. Like they'd been stolen when someone - or something - waylaid her out in the cosmere. She thought she'd been on worlds where time just flowed very differently, but she wasn't sure that someone - or something - hadn't decided to keep her in stasis somewhere...

**Fire: **Rathil frowned in confusion even further as she spoke. Now he was thoroughly confused. Scadrial being lush and green, and still peaceful? Impossible. That was only a legend. Unless...Qwydyn had come from a time from before the Lord Ruler's Ascension. How old was this woman really? When had she left and when had she returned? He decided to shrug it off. As decades had passed, he'd come to the conclusion that not everything made sense or needed to. There were some things that just had to be accepted as inexplicable. Yes, he was quite cosmere-aware now, but he didn't need to understand every little secret of it.

Instead, he decided to change the subject. "Yes, time can be a funny thing indeed. Well, I suppose that's well and good enough. Good to see a fellow Scadrian once again, I suppose. Now if you please, let's make our way to that world you mentioned. Sel, was it? Better there than here, as this world might soon be nearly as dead as Scadrial. And too bad that place is no longer accessible. I'm sure you'd like to go home, but now our home must be somewhere else. Can I trust you to lead me there?" He needed to assert himself as the dominant member of the situation despite however old and knowledgeable she was, just as he'd always done. After all, you didn't build a small criminal empire twice by being submissive and treating others as equals. You needed to make yourself the superior and give the other person reason to know it.

Still, he actually felt a bit..._relieved_ at seeing this Qwydyn and knowing what she was. The knowledge that others like him had escaped Scadrial before it ended almost made him feel a little better about the universe around him. Yes, worlds were ending and the cosmere was dying, but the fact that a small few were surviving just felt like there was a bit of right in all the wrong. Didn't mean he'd actually be any happier, but it was an inch out of the neck-deep muck of fatalism he was always in.

**WIM: **Qwydyn considered this, looking out towards the horizon of the Cognitive Realm, in a direction that counted as eastward in her mind, given the way the sun was when she got there. "I think I can get you there. But I have to figure out which direction Sel even _is_. I think I mentioned I kind of wandered here randomly, and Sel...I didn't get there directly from Scadrial or go back directly from there either, so a lot of my references are a bit off...I _can_ find it again, but even with my coppermind records, I'll need to triangulate exactly which way that is, and it's a bit easier from a fixed point - especially since the stars on the other side can help us find the way. Do you think we have a couple of days, even just one, before Roshar dies completely, or are its colors fading that fast?"

The words were truthful, but they hid her other motive too. She didn't know why, but she felt like she had to stay here, at least a little longer. There was something she had to do here, something she hadn't even figured out. Something calling against the shadow over her soul that seeing her home had cast. She had just gotten here - she wasn't going to leave right away, not until she had at least tried to find what was calling.

**Fire: **"Colors fading? What does that - never mind. No, it won't take a couple days. A Desolation isn't like that. It's years and years of destruction, torment, war, and the end of civilization and nearly all life in the world. Except for this one, where it will be all human life. And the longer we stay, the more likely it is that the Voidbringers find us and kill us, and if there's anything I've known throughout my life, it's to get away when the going gets tough and live to survive and flail about life another day. Unless, of course, you want to die here soon. But..." He paused, considering the suggestion. After all, they were currently stuck on the island. "...I _suppose _it would be safe to stay here for..._maybe _a day. We need a way out of here anyway. Hopefully, a spren ship will come here soon."

He took a step toward Qwydyn, glaring. "But if you try stalling me or going against me, I am warning you now not to get on my bad side. Those who do unfortunately end up dying painfully. And I'm not even sure I can trust you."

**WIM: **_That _caused Qwydyn to raise an eyebrow. "Well then. I'll try to get it done without getting on your bad side." She looked up again, considering the sky and the horizon alike, but this time tapping a sight tinmind to boost her vision. Traveling between realms was odd - Cognitive directions were shaped by thoughts, but that meant that destinations could sometimes appear to be either upward _or_ outward, depending on local customs, as could any indications of directions. The actual planet usually was hard to spot on the horizon, even with tin, but there were signs of changes in the distance that could help. As for the sky, well...constellations were a handy little map, and they seemed to take a stronger shape in the Cognitive. "Any idea when night will fall on the Physical side? I'd like to take some star measurements tonight to verify the direction."

As she spoke, she made sure her goldmind was attached and topped it off a bit, feeling herself get a bit drained as she did. She hated filling goldminds, but she wanted to make sure she had enough health stored up - either for these Voidbringers, whatever they were, or this man who seemed to threaten casually. She also started storing weight and her sense of taste. Those were less for the traits being available later and more for Investiture, just in case her nicrosilmind needed some topping off as well. She also thought of the words he said. Spren. Voidbringers. Desolation. All of those were new to her...but some rang a bit odd. Like stories stored away in a coppermind. Something she'd have to find sooner or later…

**Fire: **Rathil shrugged. "Well, if we're going to wait, then we'll just have to go back to the Peak in the Physical Realm. But just for the night. I don't want to take any chances." He hesitated, then said, "My name's Rathil. You might as well know that if we'll be stuck together. Don't expect to know anything else about me. Qwydyn, was it?"

**WIM: **She nodded. A night should be long enough, barring it being cloudy, and it didn't seem too bad outside. "That's my name. And that's fine. No offense, but the places tend to interest me more than the people. That said, I may have a question or two about this place. Dying or not, I try to record a bit of everything. Someone may need to know about it someday." She looked back at the Perpendicularity, considering the other side as she absentmindedly sorted through her copperminds of her travels, looking for...ah, there it was.

Stars had been an interesting concept across all cultures. On Scadrial the Trelagists preached about how they were the thousand eyes of their god. On art-minded Nalthis, they were a popular artistic topic, and in her time there she'd seen them paint the stars with a variety of colors, as the artists got better about distinguishing them from each other with every Breath they gained until they reached the more potent Heightenings. And on Sel, they reminded people of the seons and the power of Elantris - glowing lights in the world.

But beyond the fascination, that meant something else. She had seen the stars from dozens of viewpoints across the cosmere, and seen the maps each culture made. The stars moved from place to place, but in moving, they made a map to follow. As she clamped on that coppermind and drew upon it, she remembered every viewpoint and how the stars looked from each one.

**Tesh: **Mahshi remains silent, a look of utter terror on his face. Quite understandable. Tarenwel looks back and forth between the two of us, looking slightly confused. And so, the explanation of the Desolations, the Heralds, the Radiants, the Recreance, and the Everstorm commences.

Silence falls. Mahshi has fallen asleep long ago, curled up tightly on his bedroll. And here I sit, facing a man I barely know, talking of nightmares.

"My Calling," I whisper, "the thing to which I have dedicated my life, is to protect. To protect through any means at all. This has been made easier for me through the death of my younger sister, and losing my brother for several years. I have grown calluses, giving me a tolerance for both physical and mental pain. It still hurts more than anything else to lose someone, but not as much as it once did. But now, I am witnessing the end of a planet, and there is very little I can do to help. Yes, I partake of the mists, I ride the winds, I know of other worlds." Tarenwel stares at me, perplexed. "But really, does any of this matter? Alone, compared to the vastness of the cosmere, I am next to nothing. I have been called daughter of Honor, child of Preservation, even windborn, once. But I can accomplish next to nothing on my own. I need help to save the cosmere. To keep our homes in existence.

We shall never be truly free of evil. Never. But goodness always finds the strength to take a stand. We just need to be there to support it. Tarenwel, would you be willing to accompany me to a complete meeting of the Knights of the Cosmere? There, all who accept my invitation will discuss how to gain the upper hand over evil. We need all who are willing."

**Fire:** "Well," Rathil grunted, "how fortunate for us that we crossed paths. Now, let's get back to the physical world and wait there. It's always rather warm at the Horneater Peaks, even at night. Let's just not be too long. If I tell you what I know of this world, will you accompany me to this world you call...Sell? And tell me, why is it called that? What about the planet was sold?"

**Quick:** I nodded. "Very well. Obviously a single murderer takes second priority compared to an apocalyptic invasion."

**Tesh:** "We will still search for your murderer. But once we reach Urithiru, contacting all of our members will take priority." I pause, and flash Tarenwel a weak smile. "We need as many as we can get."

**Quick:** "Of course," I replied.

**Cole:** The word "fight" instinctively makes me reach down to my sheathed sword. I draw it in preparation for the coming battle, the metal sliding out smoothly. "If we go down the corridors, we can keep them from overwhelming us, but it leaves the possibilities of traps being laid for us and ambushes triggered. I think the wisest thing for us to do is to find a larger place to fight against the enemy. This close together, we will get in each other's way."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix nods. "Preston tells me there is a wider space through the leftmost passageway that way." He gestures. "Unfortunately, there are also more enemy combatants over that way. But I trust your instincts as a fighter over my own, so I'll plan to change my own tactics to adjust."

**Fire:** Detrare was a former Lord Prelan in the Steel Ministry three hundred years ago, and was now the High Ruler of the New Inquisition. Despite that, he'd never changed his appearance. He still looked like a high-ranking obligator from the Canton of Inquisition. Because in his eyes, that had never ended. It had now transcended to something more. A Hemalurgy-based organization whose members and effects spanned worlds. A glorious triumvirate of the three Intents the Inquisition was founded upon: Devotion, Ruin, and Passion. These were the Intents that Hemalurgy would spread throughout the cosmere. All with High Ruler Detrare at their head.

And right now, he was reading poetry in his spare time. His own, in fact.

He smiled, looking down at his very own written ketek. It had been hard to transcribe. So many forms of poetry, and the best had to come from Vorinism. He needed to read it to someone. Perhaps his bodyguard, Aloo.

He looked around the study of his castle, with the walls, floor, and ceiling made of spongy, tangible mist. It was of course adorned with chairs, cushions, rugs, paintings from other worlds, and his desk. Everyone needed a Passion for something; one of his Passions was decoration. He would need to burn it all eventually; after all, the only reason to create something was to destroy it.

Detrare set the parchment down, then reached over to pick up the wooden box on top of his desk. It had a bright, red-violet light emanating from its keyhole. He whispered into the hole, reaching out to one of the multitude of souls Hemalurgically Connected to him. "Come."

A minute later, Aloo walked into the room. He had felt the Spiritual tugging on his spike when Detrare had spoken. Aloo was a large, dead-faced Duladen, spiked to be a pewter Ferring. The poor man showed no expression and almost never conveyed emotion. He was full of Devotion and Ruin, but he seemed to be severely lacking in Passion. Hopefully, that could be dealt with.

"Aloo, my boy," Detrare beamed. "I wish for an update on our Exemplars and the state of the Inquisition."

Without question, Aloo instantly answered, even though he knew his master was already aware of what he would say. Detrare meant this as a test of loyalty, as well as to get a small refresher on how his organization was doing. "High Ruler, our Exemplar of Devotion is still in action on Scadrial. We believe he may have been sighted by a foreign party who suspects his actions."

Detrare waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, I have heard of those self-proclaimed Knights. They are not a worry to me, especially considering recent events on Roshar that will keep them distracted. And speaking of which, how is Kela?"

"The Exemplar of Passion is still in the Rosharan part of the Cognitive Realm, as ordered by you," Aloo answered. "He is attempting to incite the emotion-related spren into action, as his Intent demands. Most all of our affairs otherwise are continuing normally. None of our Hemalurgic facilities have been discovered as of yet, and we your followers are unwavering in their Devotion to you. Now for our Exemplar of Ruin -"

"Ah, yes," Detrare sighed. "A pity, that. One of our Exemplars - the greatest of them, for all the fact they never knew their cause - is dead. I felt that passing strongly. You always know when you've lost a child..." He shook himself out of it, smiling at Aloo. "Thank you. As a reward, I would like for you to hear my ketek." He picked it up and read it aloud. "_Blood drawn / we steal souls / piercing with spikes / with pierced souls stolen / we draw blood._" He set it down again. "Those are bloody hard to write, and that one isn't very good. I just made it up, but it has to be written in the form of glyphs in order to be proper, which is always hard. But I have a Passion for poetry, and I felt the need to share it. Never hide your Passion, my boy."

Aloo nodded and grunted. "As you wish, High Ruler." Still no emotion from him. The guard didn't turn to leave; he would remain until dismissed.

Detrare sat in thought for a moment, then looked back at him. "One more thing, Aloo." He pointed to the largest painting in the study. "You see that there? That is a glorious work of art. One made in the Hallandren Court of Gods, meant for only a god to see, for how divine it is. An abstract weaving of unimaginable colors painted in the most perfect hues, worked by one with a truly Heightened eye. It is one of my greatest, most prized possessions. I want you to destroy it."

"How?" Aloo asked. Good. He didn't question the odd demand. True Devotion.

"Take out your sword and brutally hack it to pieces," Detrare said simply with a light smile.

Aloo obeyed instantly. He was at the point where Detrare no longer needed to whisper in his soul to prod him to do something. He had Devoted himself to mindlessly obey his master of his own free will.

As the guard began slashing at the painting, Detrare smiled even more. Yes, good. He reveled in the Ruin. It was shown in his actions, not in his face. Soon the man had taken the Hallandren painting off the wall and was ripping it with his hands and stomping on the frame, then chopping the once-beautiful artwork into even smaller pieces. Yes, yes. He was giving into the pleasure, letting the momentum carry him as he hacked away, shredding the deific painting to bits.

_He _does _have Passion_, Detrare thought. _Lots of it. He just chooses to show it in his actions, rather than words or emotions. _He felt a swell of pride for the guard. All three Intents exemplified. He could only hope every member of the Inquisition was this Devoted, Ruinous, and Passionate.

When Aloo had finished, Detrare ordered him to sheath his sword and return to his guard duty, thanking him. Such control Detrare had. He was the manifestation of three Shardic Intents in one, master of a group that would take worlds by storm.

In a way, he was God. God of Hemalurgy. And not even Harmony could touch him, not with what he had in that special wooden box. That gem was the key to all of this. Yes, the Exemplar of Ruin may have been dead now, and Detrare felt that death like it was his own child, but it was only a small setback. Mask was only the first of what Detrare planned on being more Steel Inquisitors. More Exemplars. They were being made even now, in this very castle seated out in the Expanse of the Vapors. The plan was still going forward in full.

He giggled. Oh, he couldn't wait to see how it all turned out.

**Serce: **A dark hall, Death Rattles chanted in rows. The dirt, the bodies that blocked passage from and to every room. Varaseel remembers the last look of spirits in their bodies, the fear that had resonated through the entire house. She is _there_. She isn't in Urithiru where she had been moments ago. Vara is back in these real life nightmares. She watches as a knife rams into her father's body mercilessly. She trips through abandoned alleyways in desperation. She still comes back too late, too late to block all this utter destruction. And finally...they are all gone.

Vara holds those fragile hands. The ones that she has to force from her thoughts constantly. She holds them, just like she did years ago, and begs. Absolutely pleads to the Almighty. _Let me keep a piece of my broken soul. _Vara remembers wailing every day, but that day it hurts to even do that much. She lets tears flow quickly, like fire, burning everything away. Everyone around her has been dead for a couple of days from it. Their bodies are frozen to the touch, their spirits far gone from these cages. Varaseel trembles madly for death.

Pain is not identifiable. Pain is the music an orchestra creates, each instrument making it in its own way. There is sharp plucking of strings, low moaning of winds, repetitious thunderings of drums, gongs being hit with immeasurable force, only pausing to allow the hurt to echo all the way to the tips of her toes in deadly silence. All contained in lifeless hands. And now she made a pair of lifeless hands. _How many orchestras of pain have I created? Why is the world allowing me to feel this pain and then create it? _She feels overpowering loss, murder, and death.

Vara comes back to Urithiru, frozen in her position, the stones as cold as the death she experiences. She stays frozen.

**Tesh:** "Well," I say, standing and stretching. "We should get some rest. Ani will wake us if there is any danger." She nods to me from her position about five feet away.

**Quick:** "Yup," I replied, stretching out on my bedroll and shutting my eyes.

**Tesh:** I don't lie down right away. I simply roll my bedroll up loosely, pick it up, and move over next to Ani. She stares off into the distance, at the strange sun. I spread my bedroll out again and sit next to her. "Ani," I say quietly, hesitant. "Is Ani your real name?"

"Yes and no," my friend from the realm of thought says. "It's short for something."

"For what?"

"The only other who knew was Honor."

I start. "You're that old?"

"Yes."

"How..."

"Honor created me; he was the only one who knew of my existence. Then he put me to sleep." She turned and looked at me, a deep loneliness behind her gaze. "You were the one who woke me."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I. Not fully, anyway. Sylphrena was the only one _believed _to have survived the Recreance."

"Captain Kaladin," I whisper. The captain of Bridge Four has a spren by the name of Syl. "But you survived as well."

"Yes. Though I was never bonded."

"Wait, we're getting slightly off topic." I pause, causing Ani to turn and look at me. "What is your full name?"

"No one, not in thousands of years, has known this."

"Yes..." I prompt.

"Aniathaina." She speaks the name quietly, as if being reunited with a friend she had thought dead.

"Perfectly symmetrical. Why?"

"I don't know. Honor has strange ways. Had," she corrects herself.

"Aniathaina..." I try the name out, feeling it roll off of my tongue.

**WIM:** Qwydyn looked up at the stars as they were shown over Roshar. Here in the Peaks, they were clear, easy to see - not like in Sel, where the lights of Elantris, though beautiful, hid the stars in the city. It reminded her of - _Home. _She sighed, drawing on her aluminummind to keep the depression at bay and looked back at the sky, focusing on the stars and her copperminds. In front of her, she'd set out a piece of paper, using it and some zinc to do the calculations of the stars and make sure she had her map right.

"Mashe...so close?" Eshe said as she looked over Qwydyn's shoulders. "You're sure of this?"

"Pretty sure," Qwydyn said, double-checking her math and her drawings. Strange figures seemed to float over the page - spren, she assumed, based on what Rathil had said. Some looked like creative tools - pens, chisels, and other things used to make. Others floated as geometric shapes over her calculations, changing sizes and patterns as they floated.

She looked up again and nodded. She didn't have the perfect color separation that some of the Heightenings gave, but even at her level the stars were more than just pinpricks of light. She could tell their true colors far more easily, and saw the similar patterns from other angles. And if she was right, Sel - and its parent star, Mashe - were close by indeed. A hop, skip, and jump as far as the cosmere went, without anything in between. If she had the angles right, she could get to the border of their Cognitive Realm as soon as she found Roshar's. Then they'd just have to find the perpendicularity, and they could be back on Sel.

She looked back down and did the math one more time, then ran over the directions again, but she got the same results as before. The only odd thing was how the image seemed to breathe and shift a bit, just at the corner of her eyes..._Those spren are really tricky_, she thought as she rubbed her eyes. Either that, or she needed to draw on her bronzeminds and wake up to clear those strange shifting patterns she kept seeing at the periphery of her vision.

**Quick:** Eheron hiked through the strange landscape of the interplanetary Cognitive Realm. His Feruchemical reserves were running low. He had been tapping steel, pewter, bronze and bendalloy to accomplish an effect similar to a pewter drag, but far more effective and preparation-intensive. He had made sure to have substantial reserves built up before leaving, but hiking nonstop for days had left all his reserves low. However, he hesitated to stop and rest so near to his master's castle. Leaving oneself vulnerable in the Cognitive Realm between worlds could be...problematic, especially for Eheron.

**Fire:** Rathil looked out over the edge of the Peak, into the cold wasteland below that was the rest of the mountain. How wrong that there should be so much warmth and life after all the desolate rocky chill of the mountain slope. It evoked the notion that there was a warm, happy destination after the cold, bitter pain life shoved you into, and made him want to drown himself in it. That was an ending for parents to tell their little children at bedtime. Real life was never, never that way. There were no happy endings. Every happy moment he'd had in his life had been ruined at some point in some way or another by Inquisitors, koloss, the Blackthorn, other random soldiers, and everything else. There was no way out of it.

Except...meeting Qwydyn had been a very fortunate if unexpected turn of events. The young woman seemed genuine enough, though she technically wasn't young - the woman had to be older than the Lord Ruler himself! But he felt like he could trust her. That didn't happen with many. And now he was possibly on his way to a new world entirely, one that was in no way nearing an untimely end. And they had exchanged helpful information with one another. She had explained the other worlds to him - their names were spelled Sel, Taldain, and Nalthis. He'd guessed close enough.

In return for that information, he'd told her all he knew about Roshar, which was limited information as it was. He could only explain all he knew about the nation of Alethkar and the little he knew about Jah Keved and the Horneater Peaks. She seemed grateful enough for this information - after all, she was a Worldbringer or Worldkeeper or whatever they were called - and now seemed interested in the spren, as well as charting a way to Sel. Scholar.

Walking away from the edge, he walked up behind Qwydyn. "If you and your seon are done stargazing your way to Sel, you should probably get some rest. We have a long journey ahead of us, and you look like you need sleep. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to be compassionate towards you; I'm just being logical. From one who has experience long, difficult walking journeys, sleep deprivation is sure to slow you down."

_And get you killed by an unsuspecting pursuer_, he thought. _Just like when we first left Luthadel. If we hadn't been so slow, maybe I wouldn't have been the only one White-hair saved. _But that was practically ancient history. Nothing to be done about that. He'd even almost stopped hating himself for that. It made the suicidal urges happen less frequently.

**WIM:** Qwydyn nodded. "You're probably right. Luckily the trip doesn't look too demanding, shockingly enough. But when the page starts making fractals at you, it's probably time to sleep." She made one final calculation and nodded.

Eshe dimmed a bit, and Qwydyn knew she was going into her own form of sleep. The seons were odd beings. They didn't seem to need to sleep...but they did change states, like Eshe was doing now. She'd remain aware of the surroundings, making her a great alarm, but otherwise she wouldn't do much more unless something interacted with her. She actually wondered how much was built into her species, and how much of her "sleeping" was just trying not to disturb mortals. Ah well.

Qwydyn unrolled her sleep pack and settled in. Turning off her aluminummind caused her to return to how she was then and there, the depression at what she'd seen eating at her mind. She shook it away as best she could and checked her bronzeminds; given their levels, she decided to fill them, and the act of storing wakefulness made her fall into a slumber straight away...but not without dreaming

Qwydyn dreamed.

First, there was a point of light. Somehow, to her, it seemed as if it was infinitesimally small, and yet there. Mathematically, a point was nothing, and yet there were an infinite number of them. A paradox, the smallest one. And then, it stretched. Now it was a line, or a segment of one. And then the line drew upwards - a square. A plane, or planar segment. Basic mathematical evolution, she thought. Then the square did something else. Rather than moving to become a cube, which would then become a tesseract, and so on, it split apart. It became a triangle. Then the triangle divided down, becoming triangles inside a triangle. The division continued, the light breaking down to smaller pieces that broke apart and yet made up the whole. A fractal. She watched as the light continued to form smaller fractals, lights unto themselves, infinities within the finite. And as it did, it started to speak. "Remember."

She shook her head. Remember? Remember what?

"Remember," it said again. The light pulsed as it spoke. Was it truly speaking? What was its voice? It sounded like a string, vibrating words, a guitar string plucked in a way that caused it to speak with a wavering timbre. "Remember," it said. "Remember what happened. Remember, and say the Words..."

**Vash:** Vashakh Sadeas, nephew to the highprince, stalked through the Horneater forests. Storming thing, nature. He'd tripped three times in the past hour over roots and rocks and his sentient spren only laughed at him. He was determined to keep searching, however. He'd been to Urithiru once. Braize, he'd been one of the first Alethi to see it in hundreds of years! He had returned back to the Shattered Plains via Oathgate and rode back to Kharbranth to do some research. He wasn't able to go to the Shattered Plains due to some legal issue at the border that he didn't care to endure, thus he found himself in the wilds of Jah Keved. It was late in the evening, his handful of spheres his only source of light by which not to trip yet again. Clan, his Cryptic, hummed at his side dreamily, hovering on Vash's coat in a two-dimensional form - a pattern swirling and twisting in impossible angles that Vash didn't focus much on.

"How much longer, would you say, Clan?" Vash asked the spren.

"To the City of Kings? Far, by way of distance." Vash sighed at this. He'd probably wouldn't find it until he was old and wrinkly. Just then, he noticed some voices just above that ridge. He hid his spheres, hoping whoever was up there hadn't yet seen him.

**Fire:** "Can't get to sleep," Rathil grumbled to no one in particular. "Not with the muttering."

Qwydyn seemed to be dreaming about something unsettling, from the way she was tossing and turning, murmuring things like "remember" and "Words". Oh, well. Even if he fell asleep, he'd still hear voices. The soft, very faint screams of the people who died from being with him and the people he'd killed. They were always there. The calls were for vengeance on his soul, cries of agony asking why he'd killed them, or pleas to for him to kill himself and join them. It made him loath to go to sleep, but he knew he had to. He wasn't going to be a hypocrite and stay awake while Qwydyn slept. But storms, he couldn't get to sleep.

Since he was pretty sure she couldn't hear him, he continued speaking out loud. "God Beyond, why? Why make me suffer like this?" He didn't pray out to the Vorin Almighty, the one called Honor. For one thing, Vorin prayers weren't vocal; they required burning glyphs. For another thing, Honor was dead, so far as he knew. Apparently, many of the gods throughout the cosmere were. Killed by the same thing that was behind these Desolations. The Shards of what had once been God were Shattered and dying, along with the rest of the cosmere. How could one have hope for a better life when gods were dying?

"I hate you," he growled. "I hate you all. Why do I keep living? Because I don't want to die, that's why. Even if the voices tell me to. But that doesn't take away the hate. Why am I talking to myself now? Am I really going mad -"

Footsteps at the rim of the crater. Rathil leapt to his feet and spun to face them, knife drawn. Had he seen a light there just a moment before? Or had his savantism caused him to know there would have been a light there a few seconds ago? Whatever the case, someone was there. He remained silent, waiting. Then, in an effort to catch the man off guard, he decided to improvise. While standing in that same posture, he muttered loudly enough for whoever it was to hear, "Bah, I really _am _going mad. Thinking I'm hearing footsteps around me. Just get to sleep, you old cremhole. Forget that." Hoping that sounded authentic enough, he waited, ready to throw the knife into the neck of whoever it was. He shifted his feet, hoping to make it sound like he'd turned away and sat back down.


	6. Scary Wilberforce Is Scary

**Vash:** A voice rose from the small campsite in front of him. "Bah, I really am going mad. Thinking I'm hearing footsteps around me. Just get to sleep, you old cremhole. Forget that." It was a male voice. Then Vash heard the the footsteps recede. He waited a minute or so before coming out of the darkness to get a better look at the characters attending this little spot. Clan hummed softly on his coat, an attentiveness about him letting Vash know to be extra cautious.

**WIM:** Qwydyn stirred out of her dream as Eshe pulsed just a bit. Someone new was nearby. Not recognized as a threat yet, but close. She turned off the storing of wakefulness in her brassmind but didn't move yet. Instead, she started shifting attributes around. She stored weight, both to be able to move with more speed and to ready some extra Investiture to store in her nicrosilmind, and also started to tap her hearing tinmind, noting the extra person nearby...and a slight, strangely familiar hum? _Like the shape in my dream_, she thought. _Just like that. _She started to store vision, just in case she'd need to tap that later, keeping her ear on the noise in the distance.

**Fire:** Rathil held completely still, waiting until - a head crested the ridge. A lighteyes, high-ranking by the look of him. Perfect. As if two strangers meeting at the same place wasn't enough. He looked right into the man's eyes and waited until they had both seen each other, then held up the knife and yelled, "Now who in ****ation are _you_?"

**Vash:** Vashakh jumped when the man said his name and prepared himself to run at a moment's notice. It took him a second to comprehend what the man had said to him. "I am...Vashakh. And who are you?" He noted the two people before him and thought about how fast he could pull Clan out as a Shardblade.

**Cole:** "The less we have to fight through these corridors, the better. We should take a shortcut." A Shardblade forms in my hand. A few hacks later the wall has opened, and I step through. A room full of empty cots greets me. I ignore it and bound across the room to a wall. "Here?" I yell at the one who calls himself Phoenix.

**Sami:** Sam cut down a couple of approaching soldiers and, sucking in Stormlight, blew up a couple more. "Well, hurry up about it, whatever it is you're doing," she yelled over her shoulder. "We don't have all day."

**Fire:** "The name's Garv," Rathil said, using one of his pseudonyms. "Now tell me what you're doing here, _Brightlord_." He spat that last word. Glancing to the side, he whispered fiercely, "Qwydyn. _Qwydyn_, wake up."

**Vash:** Vash flinched at Garv's insulting tone. Clan hummed softly on his coat, barely audible. "I am looking for a place to stay for the night," he said. It wasn't a complete lie. Just mostly. He looked over at Qwydyn, in the direction Garv had looked.

**Tesh:** Ani gently wakes us one at a time. We gather together our camp, and begin walking. "So, Tarenwel, where are you from? I mean, I know you're from Scadrial, around Tathingdwel…"

**Quick:** "I was born in the Seran mountain range. When I was a young child, my mother took me to Tathingdwel, where she was born. When I was eighteen, I moved to the northern Roughs." My voice was calm, but I made sure to keep my eyes down on the trail as I had since we had left camp. It was always possible that she would be able to tell I was keeping the stranger elements of my childhood secret.

**Fire:** "Up here of all places, huh?" Rathil asked, arching an eyebrow. "Seems like an odd time and place, doesn't it? Taking a hike up to the Horneater Peaks when a new Desolation is covering the world? Tell me what you're _really _up to. Today's been my day for surprise encounters, and the first one was even more surprisingly for the same purpose as mine." He didn't shift from his attacking position, but remained cautious. This was a high-ranking lighteyes. He might have a Shardblade.

**Vash:** "Well, if you were miles from home, wouldn't higher ground seem a safer place to be?" He asked, feigning innocence. "I'm honestly just trying to find a safe place to stay." Little did this darkeyes know that Vash was not only a Shardbearer, but a Knight Radiant.

**Fire:** _A safe place to stay._ Rathil wasn't buying it. "Well, forgive me for being defensive, but I don't think I believe you. Give me a reason to not throw this into your eye, and maybe I'll stand down. My acquaintance and I here were just about to...uh, drown ourselves, and I don't want you getting in the way of that."

**Tesh:** "I've never heard of Tathingwel. But then again, I'm not very familiar with Scadrial."

**Quick:** "The name is probably based on Tathingdwen, the old Terris capital."

**Tesh:** "Oh. Do you have any family?"

**Quick:** "Mm...no."

**Tesh:** "Oh." Silence falls, and we walk in silence for a ways. "How much do you know about the man you're chasing?"

**Quick:** "Nothing more than what I already told you."

**Vash:** "Drown yourselves?" Vash had a touch of worry on his face. "Maybe it's none of my business, but it doesn't sound like the healthiest option..."

Clan buzzed a little too frantically, anxious at the new situation.

**Fire:** Rathil wanted to slap himself in the face. _Drown ourselves_? That was really the first thing he thought of saying? Sure, that's what the transition to Shadesmar would have looked like to an outsider, but did he have to make it sound so depressing? Now the man would think he was suicidal or something, which was true, but not in that way, and to top it all off, it was just a weird thing for someone to say. Storms curse his lack of verbal wit and his stupid depression. Oh well. No turning back from that now. "Well, we...have our reasons," he said, knowing it still sounded stupid. Maybe this man Vashakh would understand if he implied what his true reason was. "Have you ever heard of the term worldhopping?" he asked hesitantly. After all, this Vashakh, whoever he was, had come to the Peaks at the same time as Rathil and Qwydyn. Maybe he really was trying to go to Shadesmar and just wanted to keep it a secret.

**Vash:** He perked up at the question. "Worldhopping?" He thought a moment. "I do believe so. But we call it something else here - the Surge of Transportation. I am aware of a less conventional way; my best friend is a worldhopper." He was glad to have a comfortable topic aside from death.

Clandestine hummed, shifting to the third dimension and hovering closer to Garv, an almost curious pitch to his buzzing. Vashakh restrained himself from reaching out and pulling him back.

**Fire:** Wait. Vashakh knew about worldhopping? So he probably had come to the Peaks for that reason. He was at least Realmatically aware. But what did he mean by the Surge of Transportation? Was that one of those abilities that Knights Radiant had? How much did -

"Storms!" Rathil cursed as a strange, threadlike, almost invisible pattern of twisting, curving, three-dimensional symmetrical shapes lifted off of Vashakh and hovered toward him. "What the storms is that?" he shouted as he readied himself to cut at it. He'd never seen a spren like that before.

**Vash:** Vash suppressed a smile. "That's Clan." He reached his hand out and wafted his spren back, Clan obliging. "He's my Cryptic. I guess you could call him a liespren." This man clearly hadn't heard of the rumors of the Lightweavers.

**WIM:** Qwydyn slowly arose from her sleeping bag, watching the exchange. "A spren? A Cryptic? What is that?" She watched the strange patterns shift, very much like the ones she was seeing on her page. "And what do you mean 'yours'? Does it have a Connection to you?" Could spren bind like seons? And what did it mean if there was one of these Cryptics bound to her? For that matter, how had it bound itself so suddenly? She'd just gotten here. Yes, duralumin created a Connection, but only to the place, not to people.

**Vash:** "You could say that. We have bonded because I act the right way and he thought I could be good with him. He gives me...strengths...and I give him sapience - the ability to think." Vash stepped closer to Qwydyn, hoping to get a little further from Garv's blade.

Clan buzzed a moment before he said, "Indeed. Vashakh and I are bonded. We must speak the Ideals."

**Fire:** Cryptics? Connection? Bonds? Weird spren and seons? Rathil looked from Qwydyn to Vashakh to Clan. He shook his head, grunting. "Eh, storming scholars." He lowered his knife. "Am I going to be stuck with a bunch of smart talk this whole time? Cause if so, maybe I really will drown myself." Scholars weren't his type of person. He liked being around people he could relate to and understand. People who were less educated, but more street smart. Like him. He just knew this kind of talk he was hearing right now might be the death of him.

**WIM:** Qwydyn sighs at the comment by Rathil. "Sorry. It's part of the reason I left, though - finding out more about the world we live in. Or worlds, as it is. And...I'm also curious in this case for a personal reason..." She hesitated, debating on if she was ready to share this, but decided to continue. "I didn't want to mention it earlier because I thought I was just tired and seeing things, but I've been seeing a shape like that since we got to the Peak."

**Vash:** Vashakh smiled with a touch of relief. Maybe these people wouldn't kill him. Yet. "We'll try to tone it down a little and talk like decent human beings instead." He thought a moment before continuing. "You think you might be bonded to a Cryptic? A liespren?" What did this mean? He wouldn't be alone. Vash would have someone who could help him. Someone _he_ could help. This was wonderful news!

**Fire:** Rathil sighed in exasperation. "Well, if we're going to spoil all our secrets now, then my name is actually Rathil and neither I or this lady Qwydyn here are from this world. We were going into the water to leave it and go into Shadesmar, not drown ourselves." He had gotten himself into quite the strange predicament. Might as well just roll with it and see where it took him. He hadn't had any plan of action in mind before meeting Qwydyn, anyway.

He put the knife away. "Now that we've all met and become nice and cozy with one another, what are we going to do now? Sorry, Brightlord Vashakh, but I don't believe you only came here to stay the night, so you might as well explain yourself. Qwydyn, are we still leaving, or do you plan on staying and chatting about liespren?"

**Shadow:** I finger my knife - solid within the Cognitive Realm but barely more than light within the Physical - as I watch my companions rush forward to take their opponents. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do at this point. Ever have I been an observer. Never have I played a large part in any event. Yet even at this moment I can feel Honor tugging upon my essence, willing me forward to act. A man emerges from the corridor up ahead, then pauses as he notices my luminescent form. He lifts a hand and shoots a coin at me, which passes through without resistance. My knife is pulling the heat from my fingertips. It is contained, but the void sucks greedily at my life force.

"Let us give you something else to consume," I whisper.

I leap forward, my limited purchase on the sea of spheres in this Cognitive world not mattering as my feet dig into the rough ground of the Physical. I see his flame flaring bright amid the spheres about me. My body being halfway between the worlds means that I can rely upon either one to support me, where before I had to Syphon the idea of gravity from my own form to prevent sinking into the multitude of thoughts surrounding me.

The man shoots several more coins at me, his eyes growing wide. I raise my knife, and somehow it _pulls_ towards him, nearly leaving my numbed fingers in eagerness to -

A ragged scream pierces the air, my knife entering the man's sternum. His eyes turn red, then his whole form wilts into nothingness. From the Cognitive Realm I see his flame go dark, his form briefly enter that world. But it is wrong. The knife has twisted him, and he now has the visage of a shade of Threnody.

"What...what have you done?" he hisses at me. Then he is gone, stretching into the Beyond. I drop my knife, and it nearly sinks into the spheres beneath it but for being stopped by the stone floor, brought between the two worlds by my own strange condition. I have used the knife only twice before. Then as now, the blade grew too cold to handle, burning me with its chill.

What have I done? I may never know.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix scans the room, noting the mass of enemies approaching from corridors on either side of the room.

"There is a large room straight ahead beyond the western wall," Preston notes.

Phoenix yells to the group, "Everyone, cover your eyes and mouth and don't breathe in the air!" He caresses a large smokestone, and _wills_ the wall ahead into smoke. "Let's go! move!" he yells with a muffled voice. The group runs into the large room, and can hear coughing and gagging behind them as they move. "Get them while they're distracted by the smoke!"

**WIM:** Qwydyn considers for a long moment. "I promised I would get you to Sel, and I intend to keep that promise. I feel that we will have to get there eventually, for some reason. But..." She considers the strange shape of the other spren. "I do need to figure out something. I've been here less than a day, and one of these spren has chosen me. That makes no sense given what I know." _Remember_, the dream had said. "That leads me to a simple conclusion. There's something I don't know. Something not in my copperminds or my memory - maybe a coppermind I lost, or else something - someone - took some of my memories. I'm...not sure which is more likely or terrifying." She looked up at Mashe in the night sky. "I think there's something I'm missing, and I think some of it can be found here. And I think some of it is on Sel as well. I won't abandon that quest either. But I think we need to stay just a little longer, or else I fear that something may go wrong, that we'll miss something along the way."

She looked back down, at the spot where her own Cryptic or liespren or whatever it was shifted in the shadows of the firelight. "And I'll be honest. Despite the saying to the contrary, I think what I don't know could kill us all." She turned again toward the one with a spren already. "Tell me; Brightlord, was it? Does the phrase "say the Words" mean anything to you?"

**Vash:** Vash listened intently to what they said. These were awfully strange people with extraordinary stories that made absolutely no sense. But Clan would help him.

"We found Urithiru, the great city of the Knights Radiant. But I left to help my family after the Everstorm. And now I search to find it again." He sighed. "I don't think I'll find it anytime soon." He turned specifically to Qwydyn and nodded. "They do indeed. The Radiants had Ideals called the Immortal Words that they had to say to be properly bonded to their spren. Our order must first say the standard Ideal, then our spren require powerful truths about ourselves to continue. I have spoken my first truth. I don't know where this Sel is, but if you want another Lightweaver, I'll go with you. Rannikh will understand." He said the last bit almost to himself, giving a slight shrug. Clan hummed softly and shifted his patterns first quickly, like cards shuffling, then he slowed to a deadened pace, enjoying the silence.

**Sami:** Sam got a mouthful of smoke when she covered the lower part of her face a second too late. Wheezing, she sprung to take advantage of the disoriented men dashing in from the opening. She slashed, cutting down the men around her with her daggers and pushing the attacking coins back at the offender. Then she doubled over, coughing and relieving the pressure in her chest. She glared at Phoenix.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix noted Sam's glare, and while crystalizing two of the combatants approaching Cole, shouted over, "Did you notice that before I created that opening you were surrounded on four sides by Coinshots? That smoke may have been what saved your life. You're welcome."

**Cole:** Ignoring Samar and Phoenix's talk, I rush through the opening just created. Five bullets slam into me almost instantly, and the force pushes me back through the door. Before any other shots can hit me, I roll to the side. "This isn't good, they all have aluminum guns. We can't count on healing from those." I grimace as I dig the only bullet that didn't pass through my body out with one of my throwing knives. Once the bullet clatters to the floor, the wound closes. "Your healing won't work on aluminum that is still in your body, and they must have access to Soulcasters with the amount of aluminum out there, so it is likely that they are all outfitted with such weapons. This makes our job much harder."

**Sami:** Sam huffed. "Actually, yes, I did notice, and I could've handled that. But whatever, thanks anyway." She leapt forward, sliding under an aluminum gunner and taking him down from behind. "Stormlight, remember? Gotta kill them properly or they'll heal right back up. We've wasted enough time here. Let's get the storms out!"

**Fire:** Rathil wanted to kill himself again. But this time, it was because of other people. "All right, you're all Lightweavers! Well done for you! Hey, I can inhale Stormlight! Who gives a crem? The longer we stay here, the sooner we die. Even if Voidbringers don't come sweeping through, soon enough, there will be that storm that blows the wrong way, and who knows when that'll come through here. Now, I don't care where we go, Sel or Urithiru, so long as it's safe. But I can't do it without you two, sad as it is, and you're still dallying about, talking about magic words of Radiants!" He closed his eyes and sighed. He needed to stay calm. "If it means so much to you, let's talk about it somewhere else, shall we? But we need to quit wasting time."

**Vash:** Vashakh was taken aback by the sudden outburst. "A safe place does sound like a good idea. I'm not sure exactly where Urithiru is, so if you know where this _Sel_ is, that would be a safer place to be." He pulled out a sphere for more light.

**Tesh:** The following days are just as the first. Occasional awkward conversation, walking, silence, more walking, then a few hours of sleep - although I don't miss the fact that Tarenwel and Mahshi are getting on very well. Then we come to the Peak. A brilliant white light greets us, which the three of us step through.

"Finally," I say, sitting down on the grass. I lay down, throwing my pack to the side, and look up at the sky. The _blue _sky. I hear Mahshi thump down beside me.

"We'd better get going," I hear him say.

"Yes. We should." We stand up and shoulder our bags once again, somewhat reluctantly. Turning to Tarenwel, I say, "Welcome to Roshar!"

**Fire:** Rathil spun around at the sound of new voices behind him as he pulled his knife back out. And of all things, he saw a group of _three _people rising _out of the water_. "What in ****ation?!" he said incredulously. _More worldhoppers? _

**Vash:** Vashakh jumped, wide-eyed. "What in Jezrien's good name?!" He backed up, summoning Clan as a Shardblade. "What's going on?"

**Tesh:** Up ahead, I hear yelling. "What in ****ation?" yells one voice.

"Who are you?" I yell to the two figures that have just appeared over the hill. I slip an obsidian dagger out of my boot.

**Quick:** I stepped backward, not drawing a weapon.

**WIM:** Qwydyn turned to the newcomers and her new companions, noting their reactions. She started to panic, but tried to keep it in check. Violence would solve nothing; but to avoid it, someone needed to calm down. Drawing a bit more on zinc - though it was running preciously low - she assessed the situation as fast as she could.

Everyone was surprised; that had a negative effect on the situation. Everyone was reacting; even she was reacting quickly, without much room for thought, and if not for her zincmind she would probably be preparing to defend herself instead. The ones coming out were unexpected by the ones already there. Likely, everyone thought the pool was too isolated for a lot of people to travel through it. So many already present meant they were all a bit on edge. Or, at least, she hoped that was the case. It would be really bad for her to get stabbed because she misunderstood that this was an actual rivalry. But there wasn't much time to think…

She turned off her zincmind and raised her hands, moving slowly. "Okay. Everyone, calm down. Please? I think we're all a bit surprised. Just...please don't kill each other?"

**Quick:** I stared at the woman on the ridge. "Seriously? 'Please don't kill each other'?"

**WIM:** Qwydyn stared back, shrugging. "I count at least two blades, one made of sharpened glass - and I didn't know you could even do that - and one made of...well, I'm not sure what that thing is made of, but it looks more than a bit dangerous and they didn't have a good place to hide it. I'm pretty sure that's a universal sign for 'I'm considering killing someone here!' So...yes. Please don't kill each other. Put the weapons down, or at least in a direction away from each other."

**Quick:** "It's called caution. Very useful for keeping yourself alive." I frowned. The woman appeared Terris, but if she was Scadrian, she would know about glass knives...wouldn't she?

**Tesh:** "Who are you?" I ask, lowering my dagger slightly.

**WIM:** She breathed a bit as the dagger went down. That was one at least. "I'm a traveler. Just stopped in here and trying to figure out what to do next." She thought back to how Rathil reacted to her being overly open, and decided to try keeping things to the bare facts this time. "I won't speak for the others, but I'm just here trying to figure things out and managed to stumble into a few things. Including, evidently, a near-fight next to a perpendicularity and a half dozen or so people where I was the only one here a few hours ago." She kept her hands out, open, showing that she had no weapons. "My name is Qwydyn."

**Vash:** "Well, who are you?" Vashakh asked expectantly. He lowered his Clanblade and stared suspiciously at the new people.

**Quick:** "Someone who's too used to being threatened," I replied.

**Vash:** "Get into that much trouble, huh?" he muttered under his breath. Clan hummed in his head; a warning that now probably wasn't the best time to be smart-mouthed.

**Quick:** "People generally dislike being arrested."

**Tesh:** "I'm Teshani Kholin," I say, inwardly rolling my eyes at Tarenwel. "This is my brother, Mahshi, and this is Tarenwel, a recent acquaintance. We are traveling to Urithiru to host a meeting of great importance."

**Quick:** I glanced at Teshani. I guessed we weren't trying to be subtle.

**Fire:** "Well, isn't this the day for surprises," Rathil grumbled. He'd chosen to inspect the situation before speaking up again. He looked at Qwydyn. "Don't worry, we won't kill each other if we don't need to." Looking to the one who called herself Teshani, he said, "Well, hello. Now may I ask how and why you just came through that perpendicularity? And what is with everyone searching for this Urithiru?" Wait. That obsidian knife she held...it reminded him a lot of the kind he'd always used in the past. The kind that came from _Scadrial_. _No. Impossible. _Lowering his aluminum-silver knife, he tentatively asked, "And what world are _you _from?"

**Tesh:** "Mahshi and I are from here, while Tarenwel is from Scadrial," I say, lowering my knife further. "Mahshi and I were on Scadrial a few weeks ago, and began to head back here when we ran into Tarenwel in the Cognitive Realm. He was chasing someone, and I have some contacts who might be able to help Tarenwel find him."

"How much of the situation here do you know of?" Mahshi asks, stepping up beside me.

**Quick:** _Situation here._ My companions had mentioned some upheaval on Roshar, but I didn't think that the situation was so chaotic it would be the first thing you'd ask a random stranger about.

**Fire:** Rathil froze in horrified shock, ignoring what Mahshi just asked him about the "situation". Teshani had said they...came from _Scadrial_...just a _few weeks ago_. _That's not possible_.

"You lie!" he seethed at Teshani. "You can't have come from Scadrial. The world's been destroyed for centuries." It hurt to say it, but it was the truth. He'd watched his home world die around him, dying with the last of his loved ones. There was no way anyone could have gone back to it. The very thought that the world could have survived..._NO_. He refused to believe it. It was a _lie_!

**Tesh:** "I..." What to say?

"It is not," says Mahshi, stepping forward.

**Quick:** "Unless I spent several hundred years unconscious in the...Cognitive Realm and didn't notice my...home planet being destroyed, then no, Scadrial is fine."

**Fire:** Rathil dropped his knife and staggered. His knees were feeling wobbly. No, what they said couldn't be possible, there was _no way_ that could be true. But they didn't seem to be lying. They seemed to think they were actually telling the truth. But what they spoke was false, no other answer to it. Why were they saying this?

"That's impossible. I - I watched it die. _I watched Scadrial die!_ I was there when everything was drowning in ash and suffocating in mists! I was there when the Final Empire fell, people slaughtered each other, and chaos took over everything! I watched my family die and left them in the ash to be buried, wondering why I couldn't die with them when my life was saved! I barely escaped with my own life! So don't. You. _Dare_! Tell me. That it. Hasn't. Died. Or that it's fine. It's just as dead and ruined as this world is sure to be."

He looked to Mahshi. "You want to know about a situation? Another Desolation has arrived, and with it comes the Voidbringers, a storm that blows the wrong way, and a pathetic band of so-called Knights Radiant who couldn't be less qualified to stop it. _Roshar is going to die_." Looking back at Teshani and Tarenwel, he yelled, "Just like Scadrial! I don't know why you think it hasn't been destroyed, because I'm pretty sure you weren't there when it was!"

**Quick:** I folded my arms. "I'm not sure how you could _possibly_ have such ridiculously outdated information, but Scadrial hasn't had ash and mist in the amounts you're describing since the Catacendre, which was three hundred years ago, by the way. The Final Empire hasn't existed since slightly before then."

**Tesh:** Mahshi walks up to the man and lays a hand on his shoulder. "That was hundreds of years ago."

_But what would it be like, _I think, _to have lived then and be Mistborn? To spin through the mist, ash flying past, mistcloak flying behind me. The Survivor, the Ascendant Warrior, the Lord Mistborn. All the heroes of the past. But no...that is not possible. _I step up beside my brother. "The world was saved. And if Scadrial was saved, Roshar still has a chance. Even if it's fighting an even greater evil." The grief behind the man's eyes startles me. He reminds me almost of Mask. "And we have more than just Radiants fighting." _Storms, there's no way this is helping,_ I think. _This is probably just making it worse. _

**Fire:** Rathil was about to tell them off for not living in that era when he did, that he had just _left _it three hundred years ago, that he had watched it die away, and that he didn't believe their little fable of a Catacendre. But when Tarenwel used Allomancy for him, he gaped. _Another Allomancer_? "No." He backed away from Mahshi, shrugging off his hand. "How?"

**Tesh:** "We have a very distant relative who was a worldhopper from Scadrial," I say. "And no, I'm not crazy. Neither of us are."

"I lived on Scadrial for the past several years. It's most definitely not destroyed," Mahshi says. "I'm a Feruchemist." He pulls up his sleeve to reveal metal bracers.

**Quick:** "If we're showing off powers here, I am not some legendary Mistborn or Full Feruchemist, but I am Twinborn. As for Scadrial's state of affairs, my best proof is myself; I am twenty-seven years old and born on Scadrial."

**Fire:** Rathil grabbed his head with both hands, squeezed his eyes shut, and turned away from them. "No, no, no, no, no..." He stumbled his knees. Everything they said, and proved by showing, was impossible! Yet somehow, it was the case. They were definitely telling the truth, but he couldn't believe it. How did you save a world from a force of total destruction, suffocation, and drowning? How did one live through it?

The facts and lies were twisting about in his mind, pulsing through his head, and crashing into each other. If what they said was true, then he...he didn't know what to believe anymore. He didn't know if he should feel relief and joy at the fact that Scadrial had survived and still existed, horror that he'd been believing things so wrongly for so many years, fury at himself and bad luck that the world had been saved right before he left it, or utter confusion at the audacity of Teshani, Tarenwel, and Mahshi's claims. It was just too much for him.

He didn't want to accept the truth. Not just because that would mean he'd been wrong for so long. But also because the prospect of Scadrial having been saved from its complete ruination was a light in the sea of darkness. A possibility for hope, for joy, for something more going right in a universe where everything was going to Braize.

That hope terrified him, and he shied away from the light. How was he supposed to be happy again? How was he supposed to accept that it had all simply "worked out" and that life and civilization had returned to his home world? He...didn't want it to be true. He was so used to everything going wrong that something as major as that going so right was scary and unfamiliar. It was a beacon of hope, spearing through his depression and upsetting his normal pessimistic, life-hating attitude. And he didn't want that to be the case.

Which was why he couldn't completely come to believe them yet. If anything, he wanted more proof first. Because as much as he was afraid of the light of hope changing him...a part of him yearned for it, begging and crying to be pulled from the omnipresent stupor of depression. Storm it. Was he actually crying now? What was wrong with him? He was falling apart around a group of random strangers he'd known for less than a day or even a few minutes. He looked like an idiot, didn't he? Without looking back at them, he tentatively asked, "How - how did the world...survive?"

**Quick:** "The short answer is, the Ascendant Warrior Ascended. Then Harmony Ascended. Bam, the world is saved."

**Tesh:** I cast a glare at Tarenwel. "When Preservation died, the Ascendant Warrior Ascended and sacrificed her life to kill Ruin. Though in the strange way of Shards, neither Preservation nor Ruin actually died. But Sazed, a member of the Survivor's crew, Ascended and took up both Shards and became Harmony. Using the Investiture from both Shards, he restored the planet to its state as it was before the Lord Ruler moved it closer to the sun. The place where Harmony Ascended is now called the Field of Rebirth."

**Fire:** So Ruin - the Shard that had destroyed Scadrial - had been stopped by another Shard? Preservation? Rathil had heard of these Shards from White-hair, but he thought the Preservation Shard had died. But instead...they...came back together? Became an even greater Shard called Harmony, controlled by a Terrisman? And the planet had been...restored? And not just to the way he knew it before. No, the way these people described it was like the days before the Lord Ruler. It sounded like utter nonsense, but it was somehow...true. The ways of gods weren't something Rathil would ever claim to understand. But still...the thought that it was all so real…

"Can - can I - see it?" he asked, standing and turning to Teshani and Mahshi. "My world? Scadrial?" He pointedly ignored Tarenwel. The other two were being tender, or at least making an effort to be helpful, in breaking this news to him. But all this man seemed to do was have a bad attitude toward everything and cared nothing for how bluntly he explained it. Couldn't he see Rathil was already in pain? Did he have to rub salt in the fresh wound like that so coarsely? Rathil found himself hating Tarenwel immediately. He spared a glare at him, thinking of where in his smug-looking face to stab him first, then glanced over to Qwydyn to see her reaction to finding out her world had been restored. He absently muttered, "I...need to see it."

**Tesh:** "I'm sorry. It would take me several weeks to go back to Scadrial, and I cannot afford to waste valuable time. And I'm not saying taking you back would be a _waste_ of time, it would just be a loss of valuable time." I contemplate telling the man of the situation on Scadrial at the moment. The return of the Steel Inquisition...but how hard would he take it?

"There is something going on on Scadrial right now," says Mahshi.

_As soon as we are alone, I will punch you while both holding Stormlight and burning pewter._

**Vash:** Vashakh, quiet at the mention of this other world, stepped forward, his Blade puffing into mist. He looked intent and curious. Clan hummed on his coat, drinking in any false and true information.

**Cole:** "Phoenix, can you open up a hole in the ceiling? I'm going to try and get around to their marksmen and kill them. But if they know I'm coming, it won't work. I'm gonna need you three to hold their attention for a while."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled. "I have an even better idea. We've already traveled to where these marksmen are, and I always memorize my surroundings I might add, so it would be no problem at all to Elsecall us back behind enemy lines. We can go a bit further back to be safe, to make sure we end up behind them."

**Sami:** Sam slicked her arm and twisted it out of a guy's hold. "Not to be a killjoy or anything, but won't there be more guys behind them and you'll be completely surrounded?" She gestured to the incoming enemy. "Don't forget that these guys are all Invested too, so how about we just take the easy way and Phoenix Elsecalls us out of here."

**Phoenix:** "How can we leave now with no information? We need some clue first as to where this group is based from. This is obviously not their primary headquarters. The leader of such an organization as this has to be a true mastermind to have banded such an interesting group of worldhoppers together under a common goal, and quite frankly, this place is a hole in the middle of nowhere. Speaking of which, what is this group's true goal? Bringing back the Inquisition to what end? It would be nice to learn _something_ from all this effort before we leave!"

**Sami:** "Seriously?" Sam yelled at Phoenix, struggling with a Pewterarm. "The moment we set off those alarms we lost any chance of getting information. If we stay here we're dead -" she paused to finish off the Pewterarm and heal her broken leg "- and you might think you're fine -" pause again to fend off a Coinshot "- but by Stormfather itself, you can _not _fend off a storming _army_ of Invested guys with only four of us. Now get us the rusts out of here!"

**Quick:** "He doesn't need us to see Scadrial," I pointed out.

**Fire:** Rathil frowned with his mouth hanging open, stopping himself before he could begrudgingly accept that he couldn't see proof just yet. He definitely wanted to know, and he felt frustrated that he couldn't just go back to Scadrial yet if it was still habitable. Though Tarenwel did have a point. He didn't need them. Good. Best to not be around that fellow. But what Mahshi just said…

He closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes. After a pause, he slowly asked, "What do you mean 'something's going on'?"

Detrare smiled as he fiddled with the long, thin spikes in his hand. He finally had a few minutes of spare time in the busy mess of a day to complete one of his side projects. Managing an interplanetary organization of anarchy, chaos, and fanaticism was rather difficult at times, but now, with no one around, he was taking a break. And though the spikes he held were Hemalurgically Invested, they weren't meant for spiking anyone else.

No, they were his knitting needles. After all, everyone needed a Passion, as he always said, and he'd been working on this quilt for years. All so he could burn it for everyone to see. After all, the only point in creating something was to watch it die. That was why Ruin had created Scadrial in the first place, was it not? But no, he just had to have fused with Preservation and fixed everything instead. Detrare continued knitting more furiously at the thought of that. His knitting needles were still a bit bloody, but it was dried by now and wouldn't affect the quilt.

He would have liked to have told himself that he just pierced people through with the needles because he wanted to. After all, it caused more Ruin and it was an excuse to practice Hemalurgy with his own hands. That was something he didn't do much of strangely enough. But no. That had been due to an unfortunate outburst of rage. Relating to Mask…

He found his thoughts wandering to think of Mask again. So much potential...gone too soon. Mask was Detrare's child. He'd ordered for the man to be kidnapped, tied down, and spiked through. It definitely hurt the poor man, but Ruin always came with pain. Detrare hadn't done the spiking himself; he'd supervised it and left Bryce to commence with the actual procedure. But that man had also considered Mask his own creation.

And fortunately, he'd also been Mask's first kill. Detrare was honestly not all that opposed to his own subordinates killing each other. After all, it only caused more Ruin and outbursts of Passion. But the problem was that it showed a great lack in Devotion and slowed the progress of the Inquisition. His organization needed to persist, to grow. Detrare had come to accept that in some ways, everything they did involved the Intents of other Shards as well. The Inquisition sought to grow, expand, and develop, to dominate the cosmere with its chaotic influence, to seed Hemalurgy into everything. Those were all aspects of Ambition, Cultivation, and Dominion. He considered those subsidiary motives. Intents that only served to help them forward in spreading the primary three. They would help the Inquisition grow to its greatest power.

Mask had been its first real Inquisitor. Detrare's pride and joy. He'd looked deep into the poor fellow's broken, twisted soul, whispering into it to seed Ruin. He'd never actually taken control of Mask, even if he could have. He wanted to see what the Inquisitor would do on his own with what he believed to be his orders. Project Archangel. Mask had been told that was his purpose as he'd undergone the transformation. To destroy those with power and control, channeling chaos that others had seeded. He had thought that to be his purpose.

It was all a cover-up. The real objective had been to simply cause more Ruin, and to give Mask a reason to believe he was supposed to cause it. Otherwise, Detrare would have had to take control, and he had wanted Mask to act on his own. A rhyme came to mind, the very one Detrare himself had whispered to Mask during the process of transformation to help...motivate him.

_**In me nothing seen, for I cannot be felt,**_

_**Cannot be heard, cannot be smelled,**_

_**I lie behind stars. I walk amongst hills,**_

_**Empty holes I will come to fill.**_

_**I came first. I follow after.**_

_**I end life. I kill laughter.**_

_**What am I? **_

_**...I am Darkness…**_

And in the end, Project Archangel had proven to be a minor success. An entire city, burning and dying as it tore itself apart. Glorious, beautiful _Ruin_. Detrare had hoped for that to only be the beginning of Mask's path to fulfilling his role as Exemplar. Then Mask had died. Killed by the leader of those self-proclaimed Knights of the Cosmere. But even before then, he had resisted causing Ruin, preferring to cause pain to himself. Poor boy. Detrare had hoped Mask would return to his senses, but instead he grew a conscience and got himself killed.

When Detrare had realized that, he'd reacted with fury. _Passionate _fury. Using his own two needles, he had gone up to two bystanders and repeatedly rammed them through their chests until they punched right through, screaming in rage all the while. A true demonstration of the Passion and frustration that he felt. So now the needles held portions of the decaying spiritwebs of those unfortunate bystanders, but continued to serve their original purpose. Now, because he'd lost all Connection to Mask, he knew he couldn't make the same mistake again. So now he was picking up the pace, creating two new Inquisitors to wreak havoc on Scadrial. And this time, he was going to take no chances and control them directly.

Detrare decided to stop musing and knitting to get back to the supervision of those Inquisitors being made, when suddenly the box on his desk pulsed, the red-violet light within it shining brighter. He perked up at that, and strode across the room to see what the gem had sensed; he opened the box, looking to see the gemstone inside. It was a large, ruby-and-amethyst colored crystal that glowed with a garish, powerful light - along with a small, black shadowy mass writhing in its very center. This was the stone where all the power and control came from. The centerpiece of the Inquisition. Truly his most prized possession. As he reached in and touched it, he sensed...yes. It had detected a greatly Invested aura Connected to the gem, which could only mean that one of his Exemplars was close.

As he listened for the soul and felt for the Exemplar's spirit, he found that it was Eheron. Detrare gasped in delight. Eheron was returning! His second-in-command was sure to have some juicy news to tell him. Now he just had to wait.

**Tesh:** I cast a glare at my brother, but he pretends not to notice. "The Steel Inquisition might be returning," he says.

**Fire:** If the revelation that Scadrial hadn't been destroyed was an enormous, life-changing shock, then hearing this was something five times more terrifying. That single sentence was something out of a nightmare formed the spawn of ****ation. It slammed into Rathil, causing him to seize up, gape, stumble, and curl into himself. "No," he breathed, voice shaking with fear. Fear he hadn't known in centuries. "No, no, _no_..." It was truly the most horrifying thing he had ever heard. _The Steel Inquisition_...at those words, memories flashed through him. Memories of the most hateful, evil creatures he had ever known in all the years of his life ruining every shred of light he knew.

They were memories of a nine-year-old boy who watched through a crack in the wall as his entire family was brutally slaughtered within moments by a pair of laughing Steel Inquisitors. Memories of a starving, grungy teenager cowering in an alleyway as an one of those spike-eyed creatures strolled past on the street, hoping his life wouldn't end within the next few seconds. Memories of a furious man repeatedly stabbing an Inquisitor in the gut with all the energy and pent-up hatred he had in him, only for the monster to heal back up again and beat him near to death. Memories of that same Inquisitor being killed by another one as the helpless, angry man watched from the ground. Memories of koloss charging, a dear friend dying, and bright red blood spraying everywhere. Memories of digging out of the ever rising ash as the very last of his closest friends, his _family_, were casually run through with coins by _another storming Inquisitor_. Memories of pain, the most unbearable pain, coupled with the strong desire to just die away and drown in the ash as the monstrous spike-head leaned over him.

Memories...of lifelong darkness, death, and pain. And so much of it stemmed from the Steel Inquisition. A group he'd been reassured in knowing died with Scadrial. But if this new Shard of Harmony had restored the world, he'd made everything right and kept it that way. These people had pretty much confirmed that the Ministry had died. But...returning...more Inquisitors...he couldn't fathom it. He didn't want to believe it. They had to be lying, they - "Please tell me that's not true," he begged. He knelt on the ground, face in his hands again. Storms curse it all, he was crying again. All this new information...it was too much. _Please tell me that's not true. _

**Tesh:** The pain that that simple statement brought up in the stranger shocked me. There was a history between this man and Inquisitors. As there was with me. "My sister was killed by one several years ago," I whisper.

**Fire:** Rathil squeezed his eyes shut. So he wasn't the only one who knew such pain. "They killed my whole family. Twice." He looked back up at Teshani. He was surprised to find that he felt sympathy for this total stranger. "I'm...sorry for your loss." He gulped. "How...how are they...returning?"

**Tesh:** "We know next to nothing. I simply ran into one on Scadrial a few months ago, and he tried to kill me." I mention nothing more. I just couldn't bring myself to mention him. The emotional wounds he had reopened still haven't reknit. I unconsciously rub my chest where a faint scar lingers, the only remnant of our first meeting.

**WIM:** Qwydyn fell to her knees as she heard what was said in utter shock. She hadn't seen the world end, but she had seen what Rathil alluded to - a world ending, burning under an unforgiving sun. A world where the mists took action and life was unsustainable. And that had been only a few weeks ago for her. Not the centuries that they said it was. Hadn't it? She wouldn't know, even later when she looked back, which was the part that shocked her more - that somehow, despite everything, the world survived, or that she had lost so much time. How? How could that much time have passed? How could she still be so young? At once, it became clear, the thoughts eating at her mind, her sanity - she was missing time. Years. Centuries. Maybe more than that even. This was impossible. Wasn't it? She finally looked back up, trying to speak. "I don't...I don't understand. How can so much time have gone by? How..._when_ am I?"

**Tesh:** The young woman falls to her knees. _She is Scadrian as well, _I think.

**Quick:** I frowned. I didn't truly understand; to me, Inquisitors were legends from the past, beasts straight out of mythology. But seeing family murdered...well, I suppose this just went to show that no matter how long time progressed, some things would never change.

**Vash:** Vashakh's head spun. "Maybe we should take a break. Everyone take a step back, I'll make some tea and we can all take a moment to drink in what has been discussed."

He moved to the ring where Qwydyn and Rathil had a fire and pulled tea bags and a pot out of his pack, Soulcasting water with a bit of his precious Stormlight into the pot. When was the next highstorm due? It might be in the next few days. They needed shelter. And what about the Everstorm? Surely it wouldn't be far behind. Maybe they could make it to a Horneater village soon. He focused on the tea, a little too stressed to work on anything else.

**Quick:** _Tea?_ I thought. _Well, okay. _

**Tesh:** "That...that sounds nice." The man walks off.

"What are your names?" Mahshi asks. Storms, that's right. We don't even know that.

**Fire:** Rathil gulped. He could trust these people, he hoped. He could tell them his real name. After composing himself, he said, "Name's Rathil. Now how are we going to stop this Inquisition?"

**Tesh:** "We honestly don't know." I reluctantly place the horrible words into the thick silence, awaiting my answer. But before Rathil can say anything, I add, "But the three of us are going to Urithiru to discuss this matter with some of my friends...and some enemies...who I'll contact as soon as we get there."

**Vash:** Vash looked up. "You're headed to Urithiru? Me too." And after a moment of contemplation, added, "And didn't you say your last name was Kholin?"

**Tesh:** "Um...sort of."

**Vash:** "What do you mean, 'sort of'?" Vash sparked the flint and got the fire to warm the water going.

**Tesh:** "Mahshi, our younger sister and I were taken into Dalinar Kholin's house after an incident several years ago. My last name would technically be Brinian, but that name just doesn't fit me anymore. I am the opposite of what my parents tried to raise me to be. I pay next to no attention to Vorin propriety. Who cares if my storming left hand is covered or not? Well, pretty much everyone, but..." I trail off, and rather sheepishly move from the larger group over to the man, who had said his name was Vashkah. "What's your story?" I ask.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix surveys the room and verbally sighs, calmly shoving an Invested soldier back into the far wall with a sickening crunch using a practiced ChayShan move. "Yes, your assessment, unfortunately, does make logical sense. Very well then. Everyone, to me in the far right corner!" Sam, Cole and Wilberforce gather into the corner Phoenix indicated and all four of them Elsecall back to the Vindicator base in the Horneater Peaks. "All right, fine, we're all in one piece, it appears. So what now?"

**Shadow:** "I am afraid I cannot leave Roshar, for the present time," I tell Phoenix. "I am too infused with Honor, and I am bound to his presence." I look up and notice my feathered friend flapping wildly about in an agitated state. His symbol-filled eyes shine through the Cognitive Realm with a fury I've never seen before. He wants to leave this place. He doesn't like it here. And he wants me to leave as well. I swallow. "Well, perhaps there is one thing I can do to free myself of the bond with Honor. But it will not be pretty, and it might take some time. Where will you be, so I may catch up with you quickly?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix nods. "Whatever you need to take care of, I understand. Don't forget your knife, though; I noticed it lying on the ground during the fighting." Phoenix hands Wilberforce his sheathed knife. "I have a feeling we'll be on Scadrial. All the clues so far point to the central base of operation for the Steel Inquisition being there. Here, take this medallion; it is primarily made of chromium, so tapping it will increase your Fortune. Hopefully it will help you to run into us, as well as to help keep you safe."

**Sami:** Sam nodded tersely at Wilberforce. "Thank you."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix turns to the group and remarks, "Before we discuss anything else, Sam, Cole, are we sure this base is well protected and completely shielded from detection? After our recent invasion of the Inquisition's base on Roshar, we can never be too careful. I'm sure they're looking for us, now that they know we present a threat to them. Do you by chance have any technology here that can scout the area for high concentrations of innate Investiture that could indicate an enemy presence?"

**Sami:** Sam grinned humorlessly. "If you wanted an excuse to scout, you only needed to ask." She ripped off her gloves, muttering about not being able to fight properly in those blasted things. "I'll come." Elsecalling tended to leave a weird sensation that had to be walked off.

**Phoenix:** "So I'll take that as a no on the technology, then. How I miss Sel. All right, let's get moving; I can focus on looking into the Cognitive Realm as we scout. That view overlaid with my BioChromatic life sense should provide a good scan of any high concentration of Investiture in any hostiles who may be in the area."

**Cole:** "I'll follow you guys. If there are any high concentrations of kinetic Investiture, then I will find and eliminate them before they become a threat."

**Sami:** "Well, if you ever find time to install all that tech, then go ahead." Sam unlocked the hidden gate security mechanism and started out with Phoenix and Cole just behind her. She liked the peace and quiet up here - no people, no society, no propriety to think of. Just her and the team, who didn't care what she did - or about making idle conversation.

_Don't get too attached, _her subconscious warned her. _One day they will betray you. The time will come when they leave, just like the rest did. _

Sam shook her head, irritated at that thought. _This isn't the time to live by the past. _

_The past gives experience. _

_But it doesn't predict the future. _

_I'm just telling you to be prepared. _

_You'd think, with my past, I'd have already learned to be prepared._

_Not this time. You're growing attached, Sam. You're beginning to trust them._

_It's been a year since I joined Cole. Isn't it natural that I'm beginning to trust them?_

_Like what happened with the Rathalje?_

She clenched her fists, her jaw locked angrily. _You dare bring that up?_

_Just reminding you. _

**Vash:** "Son of a highlord. Wealthy family. Not much to tell. I don't pay too much attention to Vorin propriety either, since I read fluent Women's Script." He made sure not to mention his last name, lest it bring up a little conflict. He didn't think it would, but it could. "I assume you're a Radiant or something else from some_where_ else?"

**Tesh:** "Well, yes. I'm an Windrunner, and I've worldhopped around the cosmere."

**Vash:** "I don't know what a cosmere is, but it sounds scary." He gave a huff of a chuckle. Clan sank onto Vash's coat, becoming one with the embroidery.

**Tesh:** "Well, that really depends," I say. "On...things. But since you asked me, I will ask you. Do you have access to any Investiture?"

**Vash:** "I'm a Lightweaver. I haven't really been anywhere but here, but I have a friend who has." He pets Clan with his finger. "How long were you away?" he asks, nodding toward the point where she entered Roshar.

**Tesh:** How long _had _I been away? "Several Rosharan months, I think."

**Phoenix:** On his way out the gate with Cole and Sam, Wilberforce turns the opposite direction and waves to them. Phoenix calls, "I hope you find a way to be free of Honor so you can join us on Scadrial. Don't forget to tap your Fortune for good luck!"

Sam, Cole and Phoenix all shoot coins onto the mountainside, launching themselves up into the air to begin scouting around the area, Cole and Phoenix tapping speed to increase the pace of their search. Preston spoke to Phoenix as they were flying. _So what have you learned? Do you think you can trust these people? They haven't exactly been overdoing themselves to help you gather information on this Steel Inquisition. _

_We were kind of in a tight spot the last chance we had an opportunity, _Phoenix responded to his spren_. Let's give them some time. Having others around has its advantages over researching alone, especially others who are Invested as this group is. Don't worry, I'll be careful. I won't let myself get too close again. _Phoenix grimaced as his next thought rose to his mind _She would be on Roshar now, wouldn't she...let's just hope we don't run into her. _

In the Cognitive Realm, Phoenix noticed very few signs of humanoid life other than themselves, but none of them registered as anything interesting to his BioChromatic aura when he moved closer to inspect them. It made sense. The only people who would be up here in the Peaks would be the Horneater tribes, and they would mostly be concentrated in their cities at the top of the mountains. Well, other than other worldhoppers, that is. And most of those coming here lately were not of the good sort, thinking of their recent experiences.

Phoenix spoke up to the others. "Hey, let's go check out Cultivation's Perpendicularity here. If I were looking for those who seemed like worldhoppers, that's the first place I would look. We might even catch them by surprise if we're lucky."

**Sami:** Sam processed Phoenix's words and launched herself directly towards the Peaks. She dropped a couple coins and landed softly, close to the pool.

Voices. Her head snapped up. A loud one, complaining about who cared about whether your left hand was covered, was particularly recognizable. Sam slowly shifted upright into a combat stance, her hand going to rest on the wicked-looking dagger at her hip. A small group of figures appeared at the edge of the foliage. Heading straight for her. She cursed inwardly, sensing Phoenix and Cole landing behind her. _Out of all the people to run into up here… _

**Tesh:** Vashakh opens his mouth to reply, but I put a finger to my lips, hearing something nearby. This couldn't be good.

**Vash:** Vashakh kept quiet, pulling his coat - and thus Clan - closer. What could be going on?

**Tesh:** _Stormfather. _There's at least one other Allomancer on the Peaks today. I stand up. I'm tempted to yell, "Show yourself" towards the hint of Allomancy I just sensed. It was just a brief feeling, most likely a Push or a Pull.

**Shadow:** The process that turned me into a shade was not a pleasant one. In fact, it is quite easy to become a shade on Threnody. Not so easy to keep one's mind in the process, however. Gaize chirps at me. I nod my head, setting aside my knife and the few souls that I have brought with - Gaize? I look up and see my feathered friend almost smiling at me. "Is...is that your name?"

Agreement seems to surge from him.

I nearly sit down in shock. For a couple of centuries I have been near this creature and he has never so much as whispered to me, and here he is now, almost directly speaking to my mind. "Why did you not tell me before?"

He ruffles his feathers, and I sense that he did not think it was important. In truth, I never needed him to have one.

"Gaize." I look at his symbol-eyes and it seems as if I have always known. "Why now?"

He glances away. It seems he has finally decided he will stay with me. He was content to merely observe, as was I, but we were no more than kindred spirits who found each other's company enjoyable. Now we're in the thick of it. Together.

I set down the last of my items on the stone floor and look down at my clothing. It is a part of me, I learned early on. Changing how I view myself changes how I dress.

And the change I'm about to make is drastic indeed.

"You know the ritual," I say to my friend - Gaize. He flutters over to my shoulder, his head just barely higher than my own as he perches there. I close my eyes, and I begin to Syphon.

Shadowmancy, the art of manipulating shadows. Ideas can manifest in the Cognitive Realm in a variety of ways, and if one knows how, they can change not only how it manifests, but the very nature of the idea itself. The cost for this, of course, is Investiture. Previously I have always had to sacrifice a little of my own body's Investiture to do this, then rebuild it as time permits me. Now, permeated with Honor's power, my options are almost limitless.

I begin first with my name. I manifest my personal Identity in my own form currently. With great difficulty, I manage...to transfer it...to…

Gaize opens our eyes. We are no longer the idea of two bodies and two minds, but one. It hurts us. We scream, and with a ragged cry we begin to evolve. Feathers grow outward, the beak elongates, wings spread and split into four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two - Feathers become scales, then fur, then raw flesh that bulges and splits as it grows. Talons twist inward on us, stabbing our feet and then curling into nothingness that burns with the intensity of magma. The stubs grow into blades that stab downward into the sea of spheres as we retract fully into the Cognitive Realm.

And our eyes glow. Symbols bright as the heart of a star begin to shift patterns with blinding speed. We see through them, see around them, see out of them, see all and none and everywhere and nowhere with them. The body beneath us shrinks as its Investiture is consumed by the transform. At last we stand, feathers now gone, skin little more than a memory, and wings as long as branches jutting out in dozens of directions. Despite this, we float above the spheres below us without worry.

_Hunger._ Gaize feels it as keenly as I. We need Investiture to keep this form viable, or else we will separate and be even less than we were before. Our eyes twist upward, though the direction we face is hardly meaningful. We can see all places around us at once. Scadrial is where our friends went.

_Hunger. _Several wings jut out and collect our belongings off the floor - we are not sure why they did not sink into the spheres, but perhaps it is because they were halfway between the realms, as we were a minute ago. Our wings pull them fully into the Cognitive Realm with us, enclosing them safely within our body.

_Hunger. _Our long, thin beak drags across the spheres below as we begin to move forward, our multitude of wings clicking against each other slowly and trailing a faint red smoke - Investiture, corrupted by multiple influences.

_Hunger. _We must find Scadrial soon. There will be many enemies to fight there.

And we would so much rather consume enemies than friends.

**Sami:** She had been waiting for them and they _still _hadn't spotted her. Sam sighed, imagining how easy they would be to ambush. She was almost tempted. Glancing quickly at Cole and Phoenix behind her and determining that they were content to follow her lead, she paced forward silently until they were even closer, directly in the group's main line of sight. It was a slight gamble, but somehow she doubted that Tesh would try anything. Her eyes flickered emotionally across the assorted group, waiting.

**Quick:** "Hello," I said nonchalantly to the person who had just randomly appeared out of nowhere. "I suppose you're some superpowered, worldhopping person as well?"

**Tesh:** "****ation. Sam, what are you doing here?" I straighten and glance to the side, making sure Ani is close.

**Sami:** Sam kept her tone, expression, and stance neutral, although her hand didn't leave the dagger at her hip. "I think I'm the one who should be asking you that." Her eyes flickered to the little group behind her again. "I see you found yourself another little entourage."

**Tesh:** "Sure..." My eyes flick to Samar's hand, which is hovering above a dagger. "Let's just say, things are happening and I need to be around."

Mahshi suddenly looks up, spots me and Samar, and quickly runs over. "Tesh, who is this?" he whispers in my ear.

"An old acquaintance." My tone of voice shocks me. It isn't mine. Too cold, too stiff. What did Sam even do? And yet... "Are the others here?" I try to warm my voice, to sound like I usually do. As I did when she first arrived.

**Sami:** Sam let out a little scoff. "Acquaintance? Oh that's right, we never got to the _friend_ stage, did we, _Teshani_?" She jerked her head slightly behind her. "Cole's here. Phoenix's here. So tell me, what could possibly be happening that would bring both you and all these heavily Invested people for a little gathering all the way up here?"

**Quick:** "Heavily is a strong word," I said.

**Sami:** Sam inclined her head shortly toward the man. "It's a strong word, yes."

**Tesh:** "Look." I close my eyes. "Mahshi and I ran into Tarenwel in the Cognitive Realm a few days after we left Scadrial. We ran into everyone else once we got here." I open my eyes again and look sharply at Samar. "I no longer know if I can trust you. But chances are, you already know about the fact that the Steel Inquisition might be returning to Scadrial."

**Sami:** Sam nodded grimly, returning the sharp look. "Oh, we know about that. Had a little run-in just a couple of hours ago." Sam allowed herself a small cold, humorless smile. "You shouldn't trust me. Soon enough you'll find that there are precious few people in the world who you can truly trust. And I'm not a trustworthy person, Teshani. I never pretended I was."

**Tesh:** "I have a hard time believing that," I say.

**Sami:** "_You _trust too easily."

**Phoenix:** "Agreed that 'heavily Invested' is a bit strong." Phoenix stepped forward into view of the group, walking by each member. "In fact, my BioChromatic aura tells me that some members of your party are mere children in terms of abilities and raw Investiture and could weigh the rest of you down if you were to face off against a group like the Inquisition. Why, we barely made it out from our most recent encounter, and we all have Investiture from multiple Shardworlds. Tesh, you never were pragmatic about these kind of things, nor were you ever much of a strategist, which is why I felt compelled to leave and join the Vindicators. No offense against you personally, I just like to see things get done. Now I will say that some members of your group do have much more potential than others."

**Quick:** I smirked. Being underestimated was always nice.

**Tesh:** "I agree. But I believe I can at least trust my brother. And if I am not the best strategist, that's fine. Why do you assume everyone here is going to help us bring down the Inquisition? I just barely met most of them."

**Sami:** Sam raised an eyebrow abruptly as Tesh brushed off her own weaknesses so easily, but let it go for now. "They may not be part of your cause yet, but I assume you're doing everything in your power to turn them?"

**Quick:** "I'm here for a specific criminal," I commented.

**Tesh:** "I know some people who could help us track the man down. And yes, we need all the help we can get."

**Phoenix:** "So there are threats from a renegade worldhopping group _and_ Roshar is showing signs of a new Desolation, and your group here is focused on a lone criminal? Who is this person to be so worthy of your time!?" Phoenix demands.

**Tesh:** "Elantrian, Feruchemist and worldhopper," I say testily. "And that's not our only goal. Not by a faint breeze or a stormwind. When we get to Urithiru, we'll also have Varaseel..." I trail off and dash toward my pack. I hurriedly take out a box at the bottom and extract from it a spanreed, a board, a few sheets of paper, and a jar of ink. I clip a sheet of paper on the board, then place it on the box and adjust until it is perfectly level. Having done that, I screw the bottle of ink into an indentation in the box and twist the gemstone on the fabrial. I place it on the dot in the upper left corner. "Now," I say, sitting back, "we wait."

**Phoenix:** "Elantrian, Feruchemist and worldhopper, you say? That is not as uncommon as you might think; I myself meet those criteria. Sel is one of the most technologically developed Shardworlds and very cosmere-aware, and there are ways to obtain Feruchemy if you have the patience and know what you are doing. In fact, Allomancy is much harder to obtain now that Harmony controls both Shards on Scadrial," Phoenix informs them.

**Quick:** "She forgot to mention the Hemalurgist part."

**Phoenix:** "Hemalurgy has its place, but it is an incredibly messy and inefficient art so I personally do not prefer it. Again, I ask, even if all these things are true, what makes this man particularly threatening? And Tesh, you mentioned other goals. What might those be? What's your plan?"

**Vash:** Vashakh stared uneasily. Who were all these people? What did they all want? Some of them seemed to know each other, and others seemed as clueless as him. He couldn't handle this. He needed Rannikh, his best friend. She'd know how to help him. The water for the tea boiled and he crouched down to stir in the leaves. "Clan," he whispered. "Clan, what's going on?"

"I do not know, Bonded One. But we must find out if you wish to fulfill our goals."

**Serce:** Varaseel blinks and gulps down a long breath of air. Her spanreed blinks on a small table in front of her. She pushes herself up, but almost trips over her long dress and the sudden change of position. How long had she been curled against the walls, only comforted by Flux's buzzing? Vara uses her free hand to pull out the chair from the table and stares in confusion at it for a few moments. Then she remembers that she put a glove there purposefully. _Murderer. _The thought flashes through her mind hot and quick, causing more pain than a knife ever could. Varaseel sits down, twists the ruby, and sets up the pen. Why does she feel so tired? She rubs her forehead and catches a glance of herself in the mirror across the room. Hair twisted, eyes bloodshot, and Flux starting to creep up on her cheek as if examining her too. As she looks away, she sees blood drip off of his irregular, moving lines. Vara screams and falls out of the chair. She lands with a loud noise and scurries back up, quickly putting the chair back on its legs in its proper place. Unlike her. She whimpers.

"Lies," Flux informs her in a frightened purr.

"I'm a murderer," Varaseel whispers, putting her arms around her sides.

"Hmm..." Flux sighs sadly, retreating back to her skirt.

Vara breathes out slowly, closes her eyes, and grabs a infused sphere. When she opens her eyes and breathes in, she looks like herself, but before meeting Mathis...and hurting him. She still hurt back then, but she could work through it. _Tesh, _Varaseel scribbles out quickly, before Tesh can start the conversation. _Where are you? You're at least two days late. _"I can do this," she lies to herself quickly. Thankfully Flux didn't comment.

**Tesh:** Out of the corner of my eye, I see my spanreed begin to move. _Tesh, where are you? You're at least two days late._

"Thank the Heralds!" I quickly twist the ruby and respond. _The Horneater Peaks. We ran into a few...a lot of people, including Sam, Phoenix, and Cole. I'll be there in at most a week. How are things going at Urithiru? _I twist the gemstone again.

**Phoenix:** Tesh ignores Phoenix and attends to her spanreed, which he notes is now blinking. Of course Tesh doesn't have a plan. But he supposes there's no point in goading her about it. Phoenix sighs inwardly. "Tesh, I don't mean to lecture you. You are very charismatic and tend to attract others to you and your causes. That's great, since your causes tend to be honorable. It would just comfort me to know that you are leading them with a plan in mind, for their own welfare. Speaking of which, our own plan, which led us here, was to try to intercept the Steel Inquisition before they found us. Our most recent encounter with them, unfortunately, did not lead to the demise of their local chapter. Which assuredly means that they are doing everything in their power to track us. We anticipate that, logically, they will soon search here as we fought in a way that identified us as worldhoppers. So I suggest that if we all intend to remain here, everyone is prepared for battle. Let me check the Cognitive Realm. This area is sparsely populated enough that I should be able to sense others from a further distance there. Be right back." Phoenix moves physically to the Cognitive Realm using the Surge of Transportation.

**Quick:** "How nice," I muttered sarcastically.

**Tesh:** I stand up and lean against a tree by the box. It is true that I'm terrible at planning things out. I always have been. "Well," I say, quietly. "We need to find the center of the problem. The one, or ones, with the knowledge of Hemalurgy. It would take too long to kill all of the Inquisitors to start, as their creators could create more. The Inquisitors themselves could do it, but they may not know how Hemalurgy works. And the creators would almost definitely have the most knowledge. We need to kill the problem at the roots. There may be holes in that logic, but I tried. And we _do _need to stop the problem at the center, no matter how faulty my logic."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix pops back into view. "We've got hostiles incoming, only minutes away. Fight or flee, everyone should make your decision before it's too late. Though I should note that they are close enough that they would probably be able to track you if you flee, so I don't recommend that option."

**Tesh:** "Depends on the _way _you run. I can help everyone get to Urithiru, if we choose to go. It would be very possible to reach the city before they arrive. Who, or what, are they, exactly?" I ask Phoenix.

**Phoenix:** "I can confirm that it is the Inquisition approaching. They have their own Radiants and Twinborn, some of them with both types of Investiture, so they can do nearly anything we can do. If we do decide to flee, you'd better let me take care of that; I can instantly transport us all to Urithiru. Any other option would be too slow, and they would follow using the same means by which we try to escape. Even if they did have their own Elsecaller, which I saw no evidence of, they wouldn't be able to trace where we fled to. Urithiru is a relatively safe option under the circumstances, and I doubt the Inquisition would be bold enough to attack there. With that said, there is tactical reason to stay and attack.

We have more open space and a much more suitable fighting ground than when we were in their own base in the tunnels. Also, one of the life forces seen from Shadesmar burned much brighter than the others, which most likely indicates one who is spiked, as such a person would reflect multiple souls melded together. This will make the fight much more difficult, but if victorious, we may finally learn something about who is behind all of this that could help in the next stage of our plan to eradicate the Inquisition. I can always facilitate a quick exit if things turn south."

**Sami:** Sam made a cringing back motion. "Hang on a moment there. Who exactly decided that we're joining your little group? Look, no offense or anything but I would prefer if we didn't redo the past. Just saying."

**Phoenix:** "Who said anything about joining up with them? I just don't want to see this entire group laid to waste by those incoming. That would be a waste of life and potential."

**Sami:** "Well," Sam flicked her knives out, thanked Harmony she hadn't worn gloves, and downed a vial. "Seeing as these guys are just as powerful as we are, they could be here any minute. I say fight."

**Cole:** I yawn, bored of the useless talk between us. "If you really want the threat to be eliminated, then you all should leave now and let me handle this. Phoenix, transport all of them to Urithiru; having anyone else fight with me would only keep me from fighting at full capacity. I should probably be able to take a hostage of the Inquisitor as well." I pause for a moment before looking at Tesh with a grin that held no mirth and eyes that displayed barely contained rage. "I would especially advise you to leave, to keep myself from accidentally hitting you in the heat of battle."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix eyes Cole. Sometimes the man is simply reckless, but it's probably true that he can at least last a good bit in such a fight on his own, although he's probably also still underestimating them. Phoenix nods. "That option could work. Is everyone else agreeable for transport?"

**Serce:** _The Horneater Peaks. We ran into a few...a lot of people, including Sam, Phoenix, and Cole. I'll be there in at most a week. How are things going at Urithiru? _Tesh writes.

"Tesh, I can't survive that long," Vara whispers to herself as she twists the ruby. _Urithiru is as good as it can be. Is there any way I can get you here faster or easier? _Varaseel moves the knob again and waits for Tesh's reply. After a few minutes of nothing, she twists it back and writes again. _Is everything okay? What's going on?_

**Tesh:** The spanreed begins to move. _Is everything okay? What's going on? _

_Phoenix is Elsecalling us all over there. We'll be there in a few minutes. Cole is staying here. There are eight people coming towards us from the Cognitive Realm - one of them is an Inquisitor. I'll see you soon. _I twist the gemstone and begin to put the fabrial, board, ink, and box away, then stand up, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "Let's go."

**Phoenix:** "All right, everyone gather close." Everyone gathers around Phoenix just as eight figures appear in the sky in the distance, seemingly lashed together by a Windrunner or Skybreaker. "Cole, best of luck. Tap all the Fortune you can for this." Phoenix and the others Elsecall to Urithiru, to the original meeting room of the Knights.

**Tesh:** "Now," I say. "We need Vara."


	7. Inquisibattle

**Quick:** I was going to object, but the Radiant named Phoenix transported us before I could speak up. I sighed. "Can he actually fight eight Twinborn, Radiants, and an Inquisitor?"

**Sami:** Phoenix took them to Urithiru before anyone could protest. "Heck no." Sam glared at Phoenix. "Why does he get to have all the fun?"

**Quick:** This person had quite the lust for battle. I folded my arms and leaned against a wall.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix walks over to Sam and motions her over to a corner. Sam follows, albeit with a sulking expression on her face. Once away from the group, Sam opens her mouth to speak, but Phoenix puts up his hand and whispers quietly. "Calm now, I just needed everyone else out of there immediately, and the easiest way to do that fast was to honor Cole's request to be left alone. What do you think would have happened if we gave everyone the option to stay and fight? They would have squabbled over it and then the choice would have been taken from them. But surely Cole wouldn't mind support from his own Vindicators; we've only been away for a minute or so, so there's still time to go back. Ready if you are."

**Sami:** Sam snapped the metal bands more firmly on her forearms. "By all means, go ahead."

**Phoenix:** "Here we go, then, though it might be a good idea to resupply first." Phoenix and Sam Elsecall back to the Vindicator base. Phoenix grabs a new vial belt for himself and Sam, and a new pouch of spheres for each of them. "Okay, now we're ready, but I'll take us a little away from the Shardpool so we don't transport ourselves straight into trouble."

Phoenix Elsecalls them to the top of a peak overlooking the pool. "I'll stay here and snipe using the aluminum rifle I retrieved from the base. Watch my back in case they come for me."

**Tesh:** "All right, then..." I mutter as Sam and Phoenix disappear.

**Vash:** Vashakh looked around. "Clan. This is _Urithiru_. _The _Urithiru." He walked up and touched a wall, then left the room. He was where he'd wanted to go. He noticed Qwydyn following him out.

**Fire:** Rathil had fallen into a stupor. So much had been revealed to him in such a short time. Scadrial, alive...the Steel Inquisition...he didn't know what to believe anymore. He didn't think anything could surprise him. When three new people had suddenly joined the already large and misfit group, had hadn't found the will to do much more than notice. One or two of them might even have been Metalborn, but he wouldn't have cared or been surprised. Why should he? Everything he'd believed had already been ripped out of his mind, torn to pieces, rewritten, stitched together, and shoved back into his head, but was finding no purchase. He was just...blank. Nothing the people were saying registered to him as he stared ahead blankly. They were talking about the Steel Inquisition, was it? He should care about that, right?

And then, he'd suddenly felt a yanking feeling and a flash of light, and he was in a completely different place. He'd just let himself be transported somewhere without question. Question what? Question everything. _What is going on? _Then he remembered what the newest newcomers had said. Inquisition coming. And an Inquisitor with them. Rathil shoved down the urge to retch all over the ground, both because of the instantaneous transportation and the thought of an Inquisitor, and squeezed his eyes shut. Those people...they'd stayed behind to fight, and he'd been left here in...where was it? Urithiru? Oh, right, of _course _he was in Urithiru. Why should that surprise him now?

But...Inquisitor...fight…

He slowly shook his head. Could he believe anything anymore? He couldn't tell what was right and what was false. So he grabbed onto a mental image. That of a Steel Inquisitor in all its spiked, robed horror. And with that thought, he found something in the mess of silent confusion in his head, an emotion rising to consume this emptiness he felt. An emotion that pulled him out of his absent-minded stupor. Rage.

"No!" he suddenly yelled, leaping to his feet. He looked around him, seeing the walls of the room and the other occupants. "No, take me back! Let me fight with them!" He pulled out his alloyed dagger and clenched it until his knuckles went white. "I need to kill that thing. I _need_ to kill that thing!" If the Inquisition really was returning, and was on its way now, then he was going to do everything he could to stamp it into obliteration. He was finally going to kill an Inquisitor, the chance he'd lost the first time around. He could do it this time, right? He'd have help from those three. Yes, he was going to kill that beast. Tear out each of its spikes one by one, cut it into little bits, stomp those bits into mush, and then do the same to everyone else with it. He would kill them all. He looked around the room frantically. "Someone send me back there! Anyone!"

**Quick:** The crazy guy who had gone all quiet since receiving news of Scadrial suddenly leapt to his feet, screaming about going back.

"Sorry," I told him. "The guy with the teleportation powers ditched us here."

**Fire:** Rathil growled at Tarenwel's indifference, refraining from either repeatedly slamming the man's head or his own into the wall. "Why, why, WHY?! I need to help them, I _can_ help them, I need to kill that thing!"

**Quick:** "Yes, it would be nice not to be ditched in a random tower out in the middle of nowhere when there's a fight to be had."

**Tesh:** "Stop! You can't go back now. You wouldn't stand a chance!" Ani streaks around my head, having appeared a little after we arrived at Urithiru. "Tarenwel, shut up. Rathil, put the dagger away." I walk forward, toward Rathil. He shakes in rage, his eyes clouded by pure rage. "It's too late. You will get your revenge. I can almost promise it." But not quite. I learned that lesson the hard way. _Mask...what did I do to him? I promised I could help. He ended up killing hundreds and causing Elendel to go up in flames. Promises...promises are best kept unmade. _

**Quick:** I snorted. "I don't mind running away, as long as other people have the courtesy to go through with their own strategy."

**Fire:** Rathil tried to hold in his fury, deliberately ignoring Tarenwel. He turned to Tesh. Maybe if he tried being logical about it, he could let them see why he had to do this. "Oh, 'almost promise' - storms. Listen, I've met more Steel Inquisitors in my life than all of you combined. I've even come close to killing one, which is more than I think any of you can say. I've experienced dealing with a Steel Ministry before. I can help those three. They'll need me. And I need to kill someone right now." He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. Before Tesh could say anything further, he quickly asked, "Is there any way you can contact them now? What about that, uh...spanreed thing?"

Detrare sat his desk, ready for what was sure to ensue. After being notified of another attack on one of the Inquisition's fortresses by those self-proclaimed Knights of the Cosmere or Vindicators or whatever they were, he decided that they truly had become an annoyance. So as he waited for Eheron to return, he'd sent seven of his good fighters, along with one of the freshly created Inquisitors, to go and get rid of them. They were the only other cosmere-aware group who was also aware of the Inquisition, and their interference was getting more bothersome than ever. About time he Ruined them.

This attack would also work as a test run of sorts for his new Exemplar of Ruin, a former mill worker turned Inquisitor named Warron. Though now he was simply called Fist. Mask's replacement. And this time, Detrare would take no chances with his Exemplar. Before they had left, Detrare made absolutely sure that he had full control over Fist. First of all, he'd used the gem to speak into Fist's broken, pierced soul and whisper his intentions into that man's mind. Then he'd even used his secret form of reverse-Compounding to flare his zinc and directly control his mind like the Inquisitor was a simple koloss. Now he could practically see everything through Fist's eyes.

He'd watch those Vindicators die, then move on the the rest of the Knights before getting to Ruin what was next on his list. Once the Knights were gone, he'd move on to destroying the Ire, all other Selish outposts in the Cognitive Realm, then the Silverlight universities, all while Ruining Scadrial once again. And the greatest and last on his list...well, he'd get to that later.

How fortunate he was that a new Desolation had befallen Roshar. A new storm of Passion and Ruin would overrun the world as the Voidbringers and their god returned, Devoted to conquering or destroying the world. He wasn't aligned with them, but their goals aligned well enough. He'd let the creatures of the void destroy the fledgling Knights Radiant while he'd deal with the puny Knights of the Cosmere his own way...by killing them all.

If only Eheron and Kelazeras could be there to see it. Or better yet, contribute to it. All three Exemplars together...that would be something that had never happened before. Detrare couldn't suppress a grin. He was going to have a front row, first-person-view seat through the perspective of Fist of what was going to be an enjoyable show - his minions and those Knights all killing each other. Sweet, sweet Ruin.

**Quick:** I frowned. What else was I supposed to say?

**Tesh:** "No. Sorry. They come in pairs, and the only ones I have right now are the one connected to Varaseel's and one connected to one of my father's," I say, somewhat hesitantly. "And it would take me a few hours to get back over there." I really do feel sorry for the man. I understand his hatred of Inquisitors. Probably more than anyone else in the room. But...that was years ago. I just have to push it aside. Sazin is gone. Nothing I can do could change that.

**Fire:** Rathil shook his head, putting the knife away. He knew he needed to calm down, but that didn't keep the hate from boiling within him. By now, he could only hope that the others would be able to deal with the Inquisitor and its lackeys. So long as it was dead, it didn't matter who killed it. But Rathil really wanted it to be himself. He of all people deserved the right to kill it.

"Fine," he huffed. "But if any of them come back for any reason, I'll be waiting. And if that happens, I'll need some infused spheres." He let himself stew in dissatisfaction as he contemplated his surroundings. Urithiru. Center of Roshar. Mythical home of the Knights Radiant...wait. The Knights Radiant who'd been refounded. Could they be here? Rathil perked up again. "That new band of Knights Radiant - are they here, in this city?"

**Tesh:** "Some of them, yes," I reply, relaxing as Rathil stows his knife. "There really aren't many of us that we know of yet."

**Quick:** Eheron's boots clapped against the stone floor of the New Inquisition's fortress. The door to Detrare's office appeared up ahead, and he approached it, knocking.

**Fire:** Detrare momentarily pulled his focus out of the Inquisitor's mind, even though the action was impending. There was a knock at the door. Eheron! Detrare had heard the man's soul arrive before he heard the knock, but hadn't bothered to pay attention until now. "Eheron! Come in, my boy! You're just in time."

Rathil forced himself to stay calm, even though his suspicions were mounting. He wasn't asking about Knights Radiant to see if they could help them, even if that was a possibility. He was asking that because he wondered if that group of newly founded Radiants founded by Dalinar Kholin was here. And that might mean...the Blackthorn himself was with them. That thought brought up almost as much anger in him as the Inquisitor did.

"So...is the Blackthorn here in this tower as well?" He feared the answer. He feared what it would do to him. But no matter what was said, he was going to remain calm. He was over three hundred years old. Surely he should be able to contain himself by now. Except...well, the Inquisitor was an exception. He was completely justified in feeling overwhelming hatred for the thing. Though he had every reason to hate Kholin just as much...well...at least Dalinar Kholin was trying to do good. Failing, but trying. And people looked up to him. Rathil couldn't just kill him now, even though he really wanted to. Nothing the Blackthorn did could atone for all of Rathil's friends he'd slaughtered that day those years ago. But the Inquisitor - that was nothing but a stain on the world, a mark of danger and evil that was capable of no redemption, an absolute monster. Rathil didn't care about who it might have been before its transformation. He just cared about it dying now.

**Tesh:** "I don't know. I've been out of touch with everyone lately. But...I should check in on him and Navani later this evening."

**Fire:** Check in? Rathil started. That tone of voice she used...this Teshani knew the Blackthorn? He fumbled for what to say, what to think. But now he had confirmation. Dalinar Kholin was here, in Urithiru. And so was Rathil. What did that mean for the future? Was he just supposed to forgive that Blackthorn for the heinous things he'd done to himself and the rest of Roshar? Of course he couldn't. However, if he tried killing the man now, he'd just make an enemy of everyone. The Knights Radiant, the Alethi...Teshani.

And despite his earlier thought that refounding the Radiants would just storm the world over even more, he realized that Dalinar Kholin dying really would mean the end of fighting the Voidbringers. However much he hated the thought, Roshar needed Dalinar. So that was it. He wasn't going to kill the Blackthorn or even consider it - but he could definitely think about it. Like how he always thought of killing himself but never followed through with it. He tried covering his surprise. "Um, well. I suppose that maybe his Radiants could...help us, perhaps? I'm not sure how this works. Now tell me - who _are _you people?"

**Tesh:** "We are the Knights of the Cosmere, a small group dedicated to helping the cosmere. We consist of a wide variety of individuals, from Radiants to thieves to Metalborn. I am Teshani Kholin, adopted daughter of Dalinar Kholin and a Radiant," I whisper.

**Fire:** "Hm," Rathil grunted curtly. "Interesting..." He supposed it shouldn't be all that surprising, since he himself could inhale Stormlight. "I'm an atium Misting," he found himself saying suddenly. _Idiot! Why would you just let that slip? Just because this person came from Scadrial, you can trust them and tell them all your secrets? _Another voice in him said, _Well, she was telling the truth about the world being saved. That much is certain. _Reluctantly, he decided to keep talking. These people were like him. It didn't mean he could trust them, but it didn't mean he couldn't. "I haven't burned the metal in ages, but back when I was able to, I did it so often I became a...savant with it, you could say. It left a permanent effect on me. And I can use Stormlight; not like a Radiant, just to heal myself."

**Tesh:** "So have you sworn the First Ideal?"

**Fire:** "The what? Um, no. I don't think so. It just happened because...well, let's just say that a lot was done to crack my soul open very wide, so it lets in Stormlight without giving my any special powers. I think atium played a part in that." He paused, keeping himself from saying, _Death and pain did the rest. _"What's this Ideal?"

**Tesh:** "Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. Sound familiar at all?"

**Fire:** Indeed it did. Rathil scoffed. "Oh yeah, I've heard that before. Empty platitudes, stupid words. That's all it's ever been to me."

**Tesh:** "They are much, much more than that." The words escape my lips in a whisper, before I can stop them. "Live your life to the fullest, and don't waste it. Fight until you have no strength left, don't give up." I begin to quote Nohadon. "'And so, does the destination matter? It is the journey that shapes us.'" I stop. Ani gives me a small smile from my shoulder.

**Fire:** "Huh. Means a lot to you, I guess. Well, I've already been there, known that, and done all of it. Shouldn't need to say any magic words." Rathil closed his eyes and walked over a wall, resting his head on it. He'd lived life to the fullest, and it had brought him pain until he decided to stop living and just survive. His only strength was in his anger these days, because everything else, everything he'd been good at before, from thieving to disguises...they had just become weakness to him. And what journey could he be on if he had no destination? This First Ideal was worthless to him.

**Quick:** I opened the door, shrugging off the twinge of annoyance at the term 'boy'. "In time for what, Detrare?" I asked.

**Fire:** Detrare beamed at him. "To watch a few of those pesky Knights of the Cosmere who've been on your tail die. I'll be directing the attack through our new Exemplar of Ruin. Call it a test run of sorts." He focused again on the gleaming violet-red gemstone sitting on the desk before him. "He is fully under my control. I won't make the same mistake I did with Mask. The poor child failed me because I neglected to control him. I left him to his own devices and his compassion got him killed." He looked up at Eheron, smiling again. "Fortunately, I know I can trust my other Exemplars to not fail me. Especially one who Exemplifies Devotion and loyalty such as yourself." He let his implication remain silent. _I could fully take control of you as well if I so wished._ But that would never be necessary. It was just good to leave reminders.

**Quick:** I didn't frown. That would be tantamount to outright betrayal. Why should I fear anyway? Though the hint was obvious, it was true he could trust me. "Excellent," I replied. "Do we have any means of viewing the combat?"

**Fire:** Detrare sighed. "Alas, we do not, as fun as that would be. Or rather, you will not and I will not exactly be able to watch the fight so much as experience what happens through Fist's perspective, and for all that I know Hemalurgy, I don't know how steelsight works. We'll just have to wait and find out the true results."

**Tesh:** "He will say them when the time comes," Ani says in my ear, from her position on my shoulder.

"I know. I just can't help feeling horrible for him, considering what I've found he's been through," I say with a sigh.

Mahshi stands in a corner of the room, silently watching the conversation that stretches out before him. It's amazing to have his sister back, but she's changed. She is no longer the timid young girl who loved sneaking away in the early hours of the morning to spend the day exploring with him. She is now a young woman, with power far beyond that of his own. She has grown far more confident and knows how to use her abilities.

Mahshi absentmindedly twists the coppermind around his left forearm, listening to the conversation with half an ear. Tesh, the tiny, timid, little girl, now stands before a group of very powerful people, _taller than him, _and didn't seen the least bit concerned. In their youth, Tesh would have turned bright red, even just being addressed by a family friend. So much has changed, and yet it all feels right.

**Serce:** Varaseel walks in. _I forgot how many flights of stairs there are to this old room!_ She looks around and sees several new faces, but Phoenix, Cole, and Sam seem to have left. She feels some relief and turns to Tesh, expecting her to introduce everyone.

**Tesh:** "Varaseel! I'm so glad you found us!" I smile at my friend, and spot the look of faint curiosity in her eyes. "Oh. These are Tarenwel, Rathil, and my brother Mahshi. And no, I didn't find him. He found me and probably saved my life."

**Serce:** "You could never know how much Tesh missed you." Varaseel smiles sweetly at Mahshi. The smile is laced with a hint of loss and personal sorrow. "It's nice to meet everyone else." Vara looks at the others in turn, but quickly and not directly. "Now, what's the problem and what things do we need to do before it gets worse?"

**Quick:** "Murderous Elantrian Hemalurgist on the loose. Possible return of the Steel Inquisition. Nothing too important," Tarenwel replied casually.

**Tesh:** "That's basically it," I say, swinging my bag from my shoulder and leaning it against the wall.

**Cole:** Eight glowing forms fall through the sky. I pull a metal orb and begin to aim at the one who Lashed them all. Take him out, and they all drop. After a few seconds of careful aiming, I Push it on an interception course. Before it gets halfway to the target, it's Pushed off course. "One, maybe two, Coinshots," I growl. "I suppose it's a ground battle now."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix gazes down to the scene of battle in progress from the peak of the mountaintop, with Sam having just joined Cole in a ferocious ground battle with the Steel Inquisition members. Phoenix frowns at the scene. There were supposed to be eight of them.

Fortunately, his life sense gave him the briefest of hints as to what was approaching, and so he began tapping steel, Elsecalled to the opposite peak, aimed his rifle and fired right at his prior location. Phoenix smiled as a hook-nosed woman collapsed at his previous location. Even a Steelrunner's speed wouldn't protect you from an aluminum bullet, not when your opponent was going nearly as fast as you were from using the same ability. Phoenix began Compounding steel, partly to replenish his reserves and partly to survey the battlefield. There certainly was a _lot_ of metal being worn and/or used on the field of battle, most of it coming from the hostiles. Phoenix sighed. This was going to take a while.

Fortunately, Cole had just downed simultaneously what appeared to be a Coinshot and a Pewterarm, while Sam was fighting an Edgedancer elegantly with supernatural agility, her knives burning the flesh of whatever they touched. The fight was beautiful to watch as they appeared to dance around one another; however, the Edgedancer's wounds kept closing immediately after forming.

**Fire:** Rathil stood back up, looking at the other Knights. "So...if I can't join that fight, and if we're stuck here, can you - tell me about Scadrial? And all this stuff going on with a new Inquisition? If it's true, I...need to know."

**Quick:** "Scadrial has changed a lot since the Final Ascension," I said dubiously. How could I possibly summarize three hundred years of historical and technological development? "Trains, cars, Twinborn, Ferrings, skyscrapers, guns...where to start?"

**Tesh:** "Start with the Metallic Arts," I say, sitting down in a chair.

**Quick:** "I suppose that's as good a place as any." I turned to Rathil. "On modern Scadrial, Mistborn and Full Feruchemists have disappeared. Those who are born with Allomancy are only Mistings, and they are weaker then people were before. However, two new users of the Metallic Arts have appeared; Ferrings and Twinborn. Ferrings are people who have a single Feruchemical ability, instead of all sixteen. Twinborn are those who have two abilities; a single Feruchemical power and a single Allomantic power. I am a Twinborn; I can burn bronze and use steel metalminds. Twinborn who have the same metal for their Feruchemical and Allomantic abilities can _burn _their own metalminds, gaining more of the Feruchemical attribute then what they put into the metalmind. These Twinborn are known as Compounders, and are very dangerous." I looked to Tesh, asking with my eyes if I had missed anything.

**Tesh:** I nodded.

**Sami:** Sam cursed under her breath, darting in and slashing at the Edgedancer's calves. The cut, of course, immediately healed, faint blue wisps rising from the cut as it sealed. She growled at the girl, twisting to dodge a flying dagger and simultaneously lodging her own into the girl's heart. Hastily making sure the girl was dead, she sensed a movement behind her and ducked just in time to avoid a barrage of coins whistling over her head.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix notices Sam barely missing a ton of coins, taps zinc to quickly calculate the angle the coins would have come from, aims, and fires at the Coinshot before he has a chance to run. Phoenix turns the rifle back to the Edgedancer on the ground and takes an extra shot to her head. _Can never be too careful with those_, he thinks. Phoenix looks over at Cole; he seems to be holding his own with the Inquisitor. Suddenly a large piece of rock materializes over Sam. Phoenix quickly Soulcasts it to smoke before it can fall. _Another Elsecaller? No, that wouldn't make sense, they flew here. Lightweaver then. _Phoenix looks around. Wherever he or she is, they aren't making themselves visible. And isn't there also a Skybreaker who flew everyone in? _Surely a Windrunner wouldn't be able to ally themselves with this group!_ Phoenix thought.

**Fire:** Rathil blinked. Some of what Tarenwel said didn't make any sense to him, and he didn't really care for it. He cleared his throat. "Um, this stuff about Allomancy and Feruchemy and stuff is nice to know, I guess, but...I was wondering if you could tell me more about Scadrial's history." He changed his stance and tone to be more authoritative. It became instinct for someone who'd spend much of his life gaining followers through bearing and persuasion. He was a born leader. Whatever his situation, he would make himself more than the others. "Tell me about what's happened on it for the last few years. And then I'd like to know more about you people, how you know so much, how you've gotten around so much, and what you're up to. Tell me how you know about this New Inquisition and what you can do to stop it."

Detrare ground his teeth, seething at what he was sensing through the gem. His Connections to the eight he had sent were winking out, dwindling away. And if what he sensed through the steelsight of Fist was any indication, none of those Knights were dead yet. There were only three of them! How were they still standing against his spiked, enhanced enforcers? How had Fist not Ruined them? Were all of his objectives to fall so short so laughably? He did all he could not to scream out in fury. He wouldn't lose his cool until this fight was over. But when it was over, lose control of his temper he would. It would likely be safer for Eheron if he left for that.

How Detrare wished he could do more to interfere with it! But he had no more fighting skill than Fist. He squeezed the gem tightly in frustration, looking into its depths and hating what he sensed. There was Ruin happening at those Peaks, which was always good, but it was at the deaths of his own minions instead of the Knights! Barely holding in his rage, Detrare let out a guttural growl. "_Why won't...you just...DIE?!_" He screamed into the gemstone, reaching into the broken souls of his spiked minions, driving them forward with a Ruinous Passion, pressing the words into their consciences. "KILL THEM!"

Req Carlton hummed to himself as he hefted his newly crafted weapon - a broadsword with a smooth hilt made of layered marble and a serrated obsidian blade. It was still a bit hot to the touch, but he was proud of it. No traces of metal, still sturdy, heavy enough that a normal person would have a hard time lifting it, sure to pack a mean slice to it, and still very good looking. A fine blade indeed. The hilt was even large enough to have a compartment inside it where glass knives could be stored if the sword itself became unusable. This might have been the best blade he'd made in a long time, which was saying something, considering how long he'd been doing this.

He continued humming as he carefully slipped the blade into a barrel of cold water. He didn't have a tune in him; he hadn't heard music or anything in a long time. It was just random sounds coming out of his throat. Req wasn't sure why he hummed. Maybe because he was always cheerful. But he'd never been good with music or anything like that, and his own humming or singing even sounded awful. And if he tried whistling, he wouldn't know what tune to whistle. He sometimes hated how his full name was Requiem, since that was a music word and he didn't understand that stuff. He almost wished he did. But he wasn't that kind of person. He didn't do that kind of thing.

Making weapons, now..._that_ was his thing. That was something he understood. He thought that weapons to him were like a fiddle to a music person. The heat of the forge washing over him as he pumped his bellows, the crackling of the flames the blades would rest in, the rhythm of clanging as he pounded his hammer onto the molten blades, the hiss of steam as he lowered them into the water...all that was his music. He liked to think of it as his own kind of requiem, a song of death and Ruin made by the sounds of a forge. One of the reasons why he didn't always hate having the name he did.

As he lifted the sword out of the water for the last time and laid it to rest on his counter, he leaned back to look at it. He wondered who would end up using it, just like he did with all his weapons. He wondered how long it would last, what kind of mission it would be used for, how many people it would kill, how much Ruin it would cause...nice thoughts. Good things to wonder.

The sword was quite a sight when compared to all the other weapons on the table. They were just conventional metal swords, spears, breastplates, and the normal stuff he made that would go to soldiers in service of the Inquisition. Many of them had never been used, and he'd been instructed to make a lot. If what he'd heard was true, and it probably was, there would be a use for all of them very soon…

**Quick:** I looked to Tesh; these weren't really my kind of answers to give.

**Sami:** Sam stopped, frowning. They shouldn't have been able to take them down that easily. She counted the bodies; _five. _There were three more, but they were nowhere in sight.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix surveyed the battle scene. The Inquisitor fighting Cole had suddenly vanished, leaving the battlefield empty except for the three of them. In addition, he could sense _four_ lives other than themselves at the scene from the Cognitive Realm. Phoenix Elsecaled to Sam and Cole's location, and burning bendalloy, enveloped them all in a time bubble. "I'm fairly certain we're safe here, with the Steelrunner down. One of these bodies is a fake, made possible by a Lightweaver I noticed earlier. I highly suspect the Edgedancer is still around. The Lightweaver is most likely hiding them, and something is blocking me from sensing them, which means one of them is also a Smoker. Any ideas? I feel like a trap is at hand."

**Tesh:** "Well, that's basically it, I guess. I haven't gone to Scadrial many times, so the only other thing I can tell you is that it it just keeps getting more advanced. But who we are...we are the Knights of the Cosmere, which is currently in two groups. The Surgefinders and the Vindicators. Many of us are worldhoppers, and some are much older than I am. I've personally only been to a few planets, but I've studied almost all of them. Lately, we've mostly just tried to defeat a Splinter, which I did a very good job of helping with," I say, a little sarcastically. "And on Scadrial I ran into an Inquisitor, who was in full control of his actions and acted very idiotically, and everything resulted in us finding out the Inquisition was returning, the Inquisitor attempting to burn a Roughs town to the ground, and me finding Mahshi, after assuming him dead for several years. So far, we haven't done anything to stop the Inquisition. It's just been Vara and me. I need to gather _all _of the Knights, so we can help prevent this! But as I said earlier, first we need find the person or persons behind this and bring them down. It's the only way."

**Fire:** "You've _met _an Inquisitor before now _on Scadrial_ already?" Rathil asked, trying not to show his anger. "I didn't hear you mention that before. You killed it, I hope?"

**Tesh:** "I..." I stuttered, trying to find the right words. Best to just get it over with. "No." I left it at that.

**Quick:** This was not going in a good direction.

**Fire:** "What? Why? Were you...not able to? Or did it get away from you? I mean, you _are _a Shardbearer, right?"

**Tesh:** "Look. He was spiked, but in control of himself. He came with me back here, then went back to Scadrial. He's probably dead." I don't know why, but I feel like I have to protect Mask.

**Quick:** I look up, interest piqued. This is interesting.

**Serce:** Varaseel stays silent, watching everyone's expressions until Tesh says, "Look. He was spiked, but in control of himself. He came with me back here, then went back to Scadrial. He's probably dead." She knows he isn't. Though Tesh technically killed him, Harmony brought him back. Mask even visited Varaseel.

**Fire:** "But it's a storming _Inquisitor_, of all things! You can't just trust them!" Rathil threw his hands up in the air, scoffing in exasperation. "Well, as long as it's dead..." He paused for a moment and leaned his shoulder on the wall, thinking about what he'd been told. Other worlds like Nalthis, which he'd heard of, and some other one called First of the Sun. _What a stupid name for a planet. Could they at least have some imagination? _"Stupid other worlds," he muttered. But the Knights of the Cosmere...trying to destroy this Inquisition…He turned to Tesh. "So tell me about you Knights of the Cosmere. I might want in if you're after destroying this Inquisition. You mentioned two groups of it, what are they?"

**Tesh:** "Surgefinders and Vindicators." Mentioning Mask has reminded me of Mathis, for whatever reason. I bury my head in my hands. A sudden realization just struck me. It was my fault. It was my fault Mathis had died. And after he had saved my life twice.

**Fire:** "And..." Rathil looked at Tesh expectantly. She seemed troubled by something. "What's wrong?"

**Tesh:** "I..." I choke back tears. The all-too-familiar feeling of guilt begins to settle into my chest. "It was my fault." It was true. My hands grow wet as tears seep out of my eyes.

_Still so emotional, _I think, despite everything else that is dancing through my head. Something tiny gently brushes my cheek like a faint breeze, but it stays there, not moving. I don't look up. I can feel Ani there, standing on my shoulder.

"Life before death, Tesh. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. Protect those you can." Ani whispers the words into my ear, and yet I can feel them in my head.

_Life before death. _Mathis lived his life. He died. _Strength before weakness. _I must be strong. If it was my fault, which it was, I must not let that destroy me. My time of weakness hasn't come yet. _Journey before destination. _I will keep moving forward. _Protect those you can. Protect those who cannot protect themselves. _The citizens of Scadrial. "The Inquisition. Will. Fall. And with it, the pain it has caused." A layer of hardness coats my words. The guilt is not gone; it never truly will be. But if I can't move on, it will act as a barrier against everything else.

**Quick:** I narrowed my eyes at Tesh. That had been a...strange mood swing.

**Fire:** Rathil looked at Tesh with bewilderment. Her mood had changed suddenly. Something she remembered, perhaps? And when she said those last few words, he knew he shouldn't have underestimated her. He could hear it in the angry tremor of her voice. She'd gone through great amounts of pain before. She'd been broken before. At such a young age...and this Inquisition had something to do with it, apparently. Rathil hadn't expected to find such a kindred spirit.

He decided not to press her about what Surgefinders and Vindicators were for now. He'd find out about that later. After all, this was Urithiru, city of the Radiants. He could find out lots of things here that he hadn't in the two hundred years he'd already lived on Roshar. For the moment, though...it was probably best just to let the Radiant girl be. When he'd fallen into times like this, it had been best for him to be alone. The same would go for Tesh. He stood up to walk out of the room. Maybe the others would have the sense to do the same.

**Tesh:** My head snaps up. Rathil approaches the doorway. "I wouldn't suggest that. You'll get lost." The hardness is still there. "I can't let this destroy me," I whisper. "But I can let it motivate me." I stand up and take a notebook and pencil out of my pack. I sit down again. "We need a plan. A true plan to get to the roots."

**Fire:** Rathil stopped, turning back to Tesh. "Oh, to business are we? Very well, then." He stepped back into the room. "Where do we start? I want to know what there is to know about the Inquisition so far and where you've encountered them. I'd also like to know what the Surgefinders and Vindicators are and what there is to know about the Knights Radiant. Three hundred years I've been alive and more than two hundred of them on Roshar and I'm still in the dark. I'd like answers."

**Tesh:** "The Knights have been restored, as you know. There are several among us. The Voidbringers are returning. Mask, the Inquisitor, hinted that there was something going on. Something bigger than we know of. The Surgefinders and Vindicators were split after an incident last year. The Vindicators will go to any lengths to accomplish what they need to. We, on the other hand, try to protect as many lives as possible, even if we have to take the more difficult path. We know that the Inquisition is centered on Scadrial, but they also have access to worldhoppers and Radiants. And like I've said, we need to find where this all is centered. Which is a very large task." A thought strikes me. "I need to get to that fight. _Now._" I jump up and run to the window. "I need to see if I can find anything out."

**Fire:** "Wait! Take me with you! I can help with the fighting!" Rathil left what he was about to say unspoken. _I need to kill that Inquisitor._ He decided to ignore the fact that Tesh had called that other Inquisitor she mentioned by a name. Those monsters didn't have names.

**Tesh:** "Fine. Come here." I stretch my hand out. "I hope you're okay with heights."

**Fire:** Rathil frowned as he walked up to her. "Uh...you mean...because of flying - ?"

**Quick:** I frowned at the other two. What was I going to do if they just left me here?

**Tesh:** "Falling." I grab Rathil's hand and jump out of the window, yanking him out behind me. We have to get going. I Lash myself and Rathil northeast, toward the Horneater Peaks.

**Fire:** "****ation!" Rathil swore as they fell...sideways into the sky? It was like the horizon had suddenly become down for both of them. Why couldn't Tesh just warp them there like that other Radiant had done? Was she not able to or something?

As they fell, Rathil squeezed eyes shut and avoided the thought of how high up he was. Instead, he thought of what else Tesh said. The people making new Inquisitors with their own worldhoppers and Radiants were based on Scadrial, so to destroy them, he'd have to return there. Who knew what he'd see once he got there...were the stories about a yellow sun and green plants true? Also, Tesh had explained what the differences were between the Surgefinders and the Vindicators and why they were separate groups within the Knights of the Cosmere. _Go to any lengths to accomplish what they need to_...it sounded like a place for him. He'd given up on finding the honorable way out since before he'd even left Luthadel. Vindicating it was. He already knew that he'd kill every last member of this New Inquisition if he had to if it meant stopping its evil spread.

They kept falling sideways.

**Tesh:** The wind whips at my face, my hair streaming out behind me. I only ever cut it once or twice, before I left my parents. I usually just have it in a braid down my back. But it's down today, flying behind me like a banner. I laugh out loud. _Freedom. _Ani laughs too and spins around me as we fall towards our destination. Rathil has closed his eyes. Why shut out this? The flight, the sky, the wind. Windspren dance around me, spinning. Somehow, although she looks exactly like the windspren, I can pick Ani out.

I see the Peaks in the distance and Lash Rathil and I toward them several more times; then, once I can see the perpendicularity, I dismiss them all except a quarter of one, so we stop in midair. Ani appears in my hand as the sword I prefer, long and thin. "You should open your eyes," I say to Rathil.

**Phoenix:** "So...no ideas. That's great, let the scholar figure out the best way through a fight - I see the way it is. Why once, I...wait, I sense life approaching. It must be reinforcements, let's move to a safe place." Dropping the speed bubble, Phoenix and the others Elsecall a safe distance behind a nearby peak, which blocks them from visibility to the new visitors. Phoenix immediately begins burning copper. Peering around the edge of the mountainside, he breathes a sigh of relief tinged with worry. "It's Tesh, along with one of the newcomers. They have no idea what's lying in wait for them. This is one of the newcomers who might actually be worth saving."

**Sami:** "Great," Sam said, half sarcastically, half not. "Tesh can take care of the Skybreaker while the other dude joins us down here."

_Why did Tesh come? _a small part of her wondered. _Was it to help us? Surely not. But then again, it sounds exactly like something Tesh would do...no. Information, then. She wanted to see the Inquisitor for herself before it died. Whatever good that would do. _Another small, unwanted part of her recalled the last time she and Tesh had fought on the same side. She winced, pushing it away. It was too late to change her actions, and she didn't regret them. _I don't regret them. _But perhaps, if she hadn't…_I _don't.

**Fire:** "Storm that," Rathil gasped. "My dinner wasn't good, but I don't want more reason to hurl it back up than I've already got. Just set me down when we get there."

**Tesh:** I half-Lash Rathil to the ground and dismiss the quarter Lashing that held both of us earlier, and he begins to drift down. "I'll meet up with you later," I say. I quickly Lash myself towards the perpendicularity, where a few of the others are fighting. Shardblade still in my hand, I alight next to the edge of the spring.

**Fire:** Rathil landed maladroitly on his feet, the Stormlight dissipating off of him. If only he could keep it in him. _Storm it_, he thought. _You were in such a hurry to leave, you didn't bother to inhale any on your own or ask someone else for spheres_. Now a fatal injury really would be fatal to him. Except...some of these people were Radiants, right? Couldn't they heal other people? He looked over at the trio standing nearby. "You here to kill an Inquisitor too?" he asked, whipping out his aluminum-silver knife. "Good. I've been waiting _quite_ a while for a chance like this. Where are they?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix turns as the newcomer approaches from behind. "So you decided you wanted to come after all. Well, if you want to help kill an Inquisitor, here's your chance. But his friends are all Radiant-Misting combinations, from what we've been able to ascertain." Phoenix looks the newcomer up and down. "You're not holding any sources of Investiture currently." He holds up a pack of vials. "You're from Scadrial, right? Can you make use of these?"

The Scadrian shook his head.

"Well, if not, you should at least take this." Phoenix throws him two medallions, one primarily gold and the other primarily steel, noting the man's slightly confused expression. "Don't recognize them? They're from the southern continent. Tap them, similar to how you would inhale Stormlight. You'll get the ability to heal by tapping gold, and speed by tapping steel. Don't worry, you _will_ be able to access the power within. Anyone can. There are layers of duralumin and nicrosil in the rings that grant the ability." Phoenix looks toward the Shardpool and sees Tesh flying toward...a _battle_? He watches, utterly aghast. There _is_ a battle going on, or so it appears, except they're not involved. Images of them are, seemingly fighting the hostiles. And Tesh is headed right for the illusion of the battle scene. "Well, if we're going to save Teshani from a most untimely end, we should probably get back to fighting. Let's move!"

**Fire:** Rathil was dumbfounded. He didn't know much about Feruchemy, but he did know that a metalmind could only be tapped by the person who made it. This didn't make any sense. What had happened on Scadrial? He had to go back there. But for now, time to kill one of that world's foulest abominations. As he ran after those who were apparently the Vindicators, he fingered the steel medallion in his hand. There was something in it. A power that he could draw upon, like with Stormlight, only he didn't have to breathe it in. Thought it would be storming inconvenient to have to carry them in his hand while fighting. He shoved both of them in his pocket. Whatever. Hopefully he wouldn't need to use them.

The minions were regrouping, but they were failing. Half of them were dead already, and the Knights were no closer to dying. The number of defected Radiants Detrare had recruited into the Inquisition was already low enough as it was - the ones he'd sent were half of all of them. And they were still failing to kill those few Knights of the Cosmere. One of the Knights had even been spiked, which should make this whole thing easier. Detrare would have wanted to recruit these few self-proclaimed Vindicators if he hadn't already decided to kill them.

He set the gem down, trying to contain his fury. "Eheron," he said, grinding his teeth as he walked across the room to the secret side door. "you wished to view the combat, did you not? Why don't you manage it instead? I will be attending other matters." Because right now, he really felt like killing someone with his own hands - or worse. Whichever would sate the rage stewing within him.

**Quick:** I nodded stoically. There wasn't much I could do from here, but I would like the chance to inspect Detrare's gem. Contrary to his evident belief, I was not disloyal; but I wouldn't mind gaining more knowledge to serve the Inquisition.

**Shadow:** Gaize and I make our way swiftly through the expanse of vapors, arriving at Scadrial without much difficulty. There were a few travelers that we could have satisfied our hunger with, but...Honor still permeates us. We were told there would be enemies. Gaize pulls our thoughts to our friends. They said they would meet us here. Perhaps we were faster than they were.

Perhaps something has gone wrong.

"There...must be...something." Our voice rasps, vocal chords as raw as our conjoined body. "Hunger." Our form hurts with the stinging pain of opposed essences. Unfortunately, we need fresh Investiture to separate successfully. For now, we remain the multi-winged, long-beaked...something. So we wait.

_Where are you from, then, Gaize?_

My feathered friend - well, not-so-feathered at the moment - responds simply, _You know already._

_Drominad._

_Obviously._ Our featherless wings shift slightly, setting us down on the foggy ground as our spear-like legs sink into it.

_Were you an Aviar?_

He takes a moment to respond. _No. I was something else. Something like a spren. _It does not feel like a lie, but there is something he is concealing from me. Well, that is nothing new. For now, we wait.

I find it slightly strange. I was unwilling to steal a body and spike it to return to the Physical Realm. Why then am I willing to consume a soul's Investiture to return to my Cognitive form? One is a matter of survival, I suppose. The other a selfish whim. Or am I simply scared to admit the truth? Am I satisfied with remaining a Shadow, and afraid of becoming fully human again? I do not know.

**Fire:** All at once, the remaining minions of the Inquisition made their strike.

As Tesh flew to the illusory battle on the other peak, another Surgebinder who hadn't been seen before suddenly appeared out of an illusory boulder on the mountainside, Lashing himself in her trajectory to collide with her where she'd be in the next few seconds. A Shardblade materialized in his hands as he readied himself to slam it through her chest.

The Edgedancer slid through an illusory wall nearby where the Vindicators were charging forward, streaking across the ground toward Sam. She drew a backup pair of stained-glass daggers, ready to slip past Cole, Phoenix, and Rathil and cut through them before stabbing for Sam. She also burned chromium, ready to relieve them of whatever Allomantic abilities they may possess.

All the illusions disappeared as the Lightweaver appeared seemingly out of nowhere, having camouflaged himself to appear invisible. He smiled, lifting his hand and Soulcasting the air high above where the Vindicators were about to step into stone, forming it into a wide, flat boulder in case the Edgedancer's attack didn't bring them down. Then he quickly summoned an illusory Shardblade, ready to make Phoenix think he was in for an actual swordfight when he really planned on getting close enough to touch him and Soulcast him into flame.

And Fist the Inquisitor soared above it all as it happened, looking down imperiously to watch the Knights die. It was a very calculated risk they were taking with this attack, and he would only interfere if needed be. Or he would just interfere anyway since he couldn't feel his master's control at the moment. He knew a boulder and some knife cuts wouldn't be enough to kill Cole, who had become quite a bother to Fist. He was really going to enjoy killing him.

**Tesh:** I fall through the air towards the battle and ram my Shardblade through a Radiant in front of me. The figure simply fuzzes as the blade passes through. I curse and slam into the ground a few lengths away from the Lightwoven battle. As soon as my feet touch the ground, a figure comes flying into my back, feet first, and I crash into the ground, blade spinning from my hand.

I instinctively suck in some Stormlight and attempt to Lash my attacker towards the sky. Nothing happens. "Storm it, storm it, storm it," I mutter, managing to roll to my back. I summon Ani again and sweep upward with the Blade. As the Radiant parries, I push him to the side with my feet, and jump up.

**Phoenix:** The group makes it to the battle just as Tesh is thrown off balance by the Skybreaker. Phoenix watches as the Lightweaver suddenly makes himself visible, creating a large Soulcast boulder right above them as he gets into position directly in front of Phoenix, drawing a Shardblade.

Phoenix frowns. This isn't the Lightweaver's style. Thus far in the battle, the Lightweaver was perfectly content acting in the background to support the others rather than confronting them directly. Sensing a trap, Phoenix Elsecalls away from both the boulder and the Lightweaver's path. Immediately Phoenix Soulcasts the boulder into vapor, and as the vapor disappears he notices another figure slide gracefully through the spot he had just been standing. It manages to touch both Cole and the newcomer, which does not seem to have any observable effect. _The Edgedancer must be a Leecher_, Phoenix thinks.

Phoenix immediately begins to Soulcast the air around the Lightweaver into stone, not touching him but fully encasing him. The Lightweaver immediately evaporates the stone into vapor and attempts to flee invisibly in a different direction from his image. Phoenix, using his life sense, finds the correct direction and creates a wide stone hurdle in the ground in front of the direction he sensed the Lightweaver moving; he hears a loud thump as the Lightweaver trips hard and falls, dissipating the illusion around him.

Phoenix immediately draws his Shardblade, slashing it first at the Lightweaver's belt - which carried all his spheres and vials - causing a small nick in the Lightweaver's side, and then comes around for another swing, which he hopes will hit home. The Lightweaver immediately shoots himself out of striking distance, supposedly toward some point of metal, and regains his footing, but not before Phoenix snatches up the belt and sphere pouch that fell free from the Radiant. _So, this one is also a Lurcher. Interesting. _

Just as the Lightweaver realized that his pouch was missing, Phoenix used the last of the Stormlight from the topaz in the Lightweaver's pack to once again encase the Lightweaver into stone. There would be no escape this time. Phoenix created a small hole in the stone and enveloped it in flames by Soulcasting the air around the stone. _Unless he's also a Bloodmaker, there should be no surviving this_. Exhausted and drained, Phoenix Elsecalls to the sidelines of the battle to regain his composure. He's not used to fighting like this, and starts tapping gold and bendalloy to replenish his health and energy levels.

**Sami:** Sam had two seconds to take in the newcomer before a pair of knives came at her. She fluidly dodged the Radiant's attack, letting out a curse when she realized that the girl had drained her metals. _Rusting Leechers,_ she swore, continuing to block the attacks. _So annoying_. With a quick brush of her fingers, she set the Edgedancer's clothes on fire.

Of course, the flames didn't do much as it was a minimal effort and the girl's clothing was lined with protective leather, but Sam took the momentary distraction to attack. A quick slash with her dagger across the girl's side and a solid knock to the jaw dazed the other girl, but she recovered quickly, ducking under another attack and grazing Sam's left forearm.

Sam was running out of Stormlight, having used most of it earlier fighting the others. She inhaled the last of it and ducked closer to the girl, inhaling sharply again. As suspected, the Edgedancer was also running low, and Sam had just taken the last of her reserves. As she quickly lost the slickness coating her body and fatigue was taking its toll, Sam disarmed her in a quick move and slammed the girl onto her back, pressing her hand to her chest.

Within minutes, there was nothing left but a lifeless husk.

**Fire:** Rathil charged at the Inquisitor as it landed back at the ground. It seemed to only be paying attention to Cole. _Notice me_, he thought, ready to stab with his knife. _Notice me, storm you. You storming monster, you vermin of the void. I'm gonna smash you and slice you to bits. I'm…_

The creature turned to look at him impassively with its metal eyes. It raised an obsidian axe indifferently, ready to strike Rathil down. But he knew that already. As the monster swung at him, he ducked and slid on his knees, which the rocky ground made none too smoothly. He slashed at the Inquisitor's calf, then stood back up and swiped at its neck. The Inquisitor threw itself back, and the knife barely nicked its throat. It swung at Rathil again, but he dodged the axe cleanly again, readying another strike of his own. As the creature angled another overhand swing, he feinted another dodge, then dove forward _into _the attack, slamming the knife into its chest as he collided into it.

The Inquisitor grunted as Rathil pulled out the knife and leapt backward. It didn't seem to notice any of the wounds he'd given it. He even saw the sliced skin on its neck reknitting itself. It cocked its head, seeming to understand that Rathil could anticipate its movements. Then it pulled out a glass dagger from its cloak, twirling it in its left hand as it held the axe in its right. The Inquisitor surged forward, swinging wildly with both weapons. It took all of Rathil's concentration just to make sure not to get cut himself. Every time he found an opening, he slashed with his knife, cutting at the creature's torso. And when he couldn't, he made sure to give it a good punch in the jaw or torso as well.

Throughout all of it, he felt the _rage _egging him on. All the hate toward these metal-pierced abominations who had ruined his life and killed so many people he loved. Every time he scored a hit on it, even if it healed immediately, he felt a surge of satisfaction. Whatever he could do to harm one of these eldritch monsters was a small victory in itself. These things shouldn't exist anymore, and yet they did. They were a living lie. They all needed to die, every one of them that was part of this New Inquisition.

But if there was any comfort, it was that they proved Tesh's words to be true. Scadrial was still out there. It had been saved from destruction. But with its salvation came the preservation of evil people who caused this, it seemed. So Rathil continued to hate all the same, dodging attacks and striking at the Inquisitor when he could. It was obviously getting agitated, and he couldn't keep this up. He was getting tired. At one point, he held the dagger backward in his hand and swung downward, and the Inquisitor raised its forearm, blocking his own arm. Then it tried swing its axe sideways to cut through his torso, but he grabbed its wrist. They stood there for a moment, pushing against each other, before Rathil let go with his right hand, then released the Inquisitor's forearm with his left hand just in time to catch the falling dagger and ram it up into the thing's sternum.

The Inquisitor grunted in pain, sneering at Rathil. It was hurting, but it couldn't heal forever, could it? Rathil hurriedly pulled the dagger out and stepped backward, but he was too slow this time. Before he could dodge, the Inquisitor slammed the hilt of its dagger into his forehead. Rathil stumbled in pain, crying out. _Not fast enough, not fast enough. _The creature then proceeded to kick him in the knee, snapping it, then swung wide with its axe, slicing deeply through Rathil's stomach.

Detrare strode over to Eheron as the Elantrian held the gemstone. "One more thing," he said. A routine of his he couldn't yet forget to do. As he touched the gem, he winced as he could sense that the connection to two more of the Radiants had been lost. Blast it all. Only Fist and the Skybreaker were left. Detrare tried holding in his fury at this failure. These Knights were a greater threat than he had thought. For now they were killing off his precious few Surgebinders. So if you couldn't outright defeat your enemies in combat, an alternative...was to turn them against each other, or at least keep them from being unified.

He searched out, looking for a Connection to one particular person in that area of the battle with a spike of their own...ah, yes. There she was. Samar. Reaching to her soul, he whispered something. A small nudge that would register in her mind not as a distinct voice, but rather a notion. Something he'd made a habit of whispering to her ever since she'd gotten that spike in herself. It wasn't a foreign notion, no. He was only encouraging something she already felt, so discreetly that she would only see it as her own thoughts. "You don't regret..." he breathed. "No regrets..."

He then turned his attention to the Skybreaker, who was fighting that Windrunner. Ah, yes. Teshani Kholin. Their leader. As much as he wanted her dead, he instead growled, "Wound her. Take her captive." It would be good to get information from her. Then to Fist's soul, he said the simple phrase: "Ruin. Bring Ruin." He relinquished the gem's control back to Eheron. "As you were. Don't fail me, son."

**Tesh:** The Skybreaker jumps up, far more easily than he should be able to. _He's halved his weight, _I realize. He summons a Blade, long and thick, single-edged. The side that isn't sharp looks a bit like a metal vine is growing down its length. Odd.

The Radiant steps forward and swings. Hard. Unnecessarily hard. I summon Ani, and step to the side, bringing my blade up to block. I use a quarter Lashing to quickly halve my weight and step forward, attempting to cut an arm. The Skybreaker jumps into the air and falls towards the sun. I prepare to leap after him, holding Ani to the side.

A split second before I place the Lashing, the Skybreaker falls back down, speeding towards me with a speed that can only be the result of many downward Lashings. His Blade cuts through my right arm, the one holding Ani. She puffs into mist, then begins spinning around my head. The Skybreaker, possibly healing shattered legs, sits to the side.

I push Stormlight into my arm. _I will not run again. Never, ever again. _Ani appears in my newly healed hand, and I take a defensive stance.

_Tesh, be careful, _Ani says.

The healed Skybreaker rushes me, and I engage him. His Blade crashes into my legs, and they go numb. I crash to the ground, and again Ani puffs to mist. I begin to force Stormlight into my limbs, but the light flees from me. The Skybreaker has a larkin. I see his grinning face above my own, outlined against the blue sky.

"*******," I growl. He slams the handle of his ax to my skull. The blackness of unconsciousness swallows me.

**Cole:** I quickly downed a vial, restoring the reserves the blasted Edgedancer drained. All hostiles but the Skybreaker and Inquisitor were down. Tesh was tussling with the Skybreaker, but I felt no motivation to help that impulsive emotional wreck, since she'd removed my limbs more than once. Instead, I looked towards the Inquisitor and saw one of the new members fall down after a swing from one of the signature Inquisitor axes. That thing could easily rampage through the rest of the Surgefinders, should more come, and perhaps even the Vindicators. But I had much more experience than the rest of them in combat between Invested warriors.

First I tapped enough iron to crack the stone around my feet, then nicrosil. Suddenly, blue lines appeared on the inside of the Inquisitor, giving me something to Push on. A moment later it was flying through the air, blasted far off the Peak. I quickly started filling my ironmind, then Pushed off the trace metals in the ground, flying right after the Inquisitor, thousands of feet in the sky. Wind whipping around me, I began the ten heartbeats required to summon a Shardblade while drawing my blade from a black sheath. Once it appears in my left hand, I Pulled just slightly on the Inquisitor, making sure that I would intercept it.

**Sami:** Sam stepped over the body of the girl, her usual blank expression hiding the small thrill she felt following the kill. She had never been able to negotiate. Words had never come easily to her, and neither had trusting people. Because to trust someone, you had to let them in. Letting them in meant showing your emotions. Emotions meant weakness. But this, this was one thing she could do. She could _fight_. Besides, nobody had ever cared whether she was hurting or not anyway. Unlike Tesh.

_No regrets. _Her head snapped up, her vision focusing on Teshani's knocked out form on the ground. The feeling of resentment grew. Who was Tesh to talk about pain, anyways? She was always running around, recruiting people to her little cause, preaching about honor and saying she understood everyone's problems.

But she didn't. Just because she lost one sister when she was a child didn't make her an expert in pain. _No regrets. _Despite her early loss, Tesh had gotten the childhood that Samar never had; and whether she meant to or not, Tesh would always hold that over her. Why was she even here? Did she want to see the Inquisitor for herself? Did she not trust them to handle the problem? Or was her ego just too big to let them take someone down without her and her little crew of followers?

_They would have hurt you, anyway. It always ends this way. _An irrational anger rose up within Sam - one that had been simmering within her since she had first met Tesh, and had only grown with time. _You failed them. You failed all of them. _Her knuckles, clenching the handles of her knives, turned white.

Wait...why was she feeling so -

_Kill her. _

Sam took one step toward Tesh. Then another. And another.

**Fire:** Rathil gasped, clutching at his stomach as he curled up on the ground. All his precognition, and he couldn't stop a few sudden injuries. His head and knee throbbed, and blood gushed out of his stomach. So much pain, everywhere! It was that day all over again. His last day on Scadrial. The day when hope died. He remembered another Inquisitor, chopping off his already-mangled hand, kicking him to the ground, bashing an obsidian-studded axe into his leg again and again and again, pressing his face into the choking ash, demanding to know where his last few beads of atium were. Never had he been closer to death than that.

Except he hadn't died. White-hair had come out of nowhere to save him. He had bound him up, taught him about other worlds, done what he could to heal him. But there was no White-hair this time. Just a band of misfit strangers fighting a misfit band of New Inquisition goons. It was over. He was dying to a mortal wound from an Inquisitor again, no one to save him and no one to heal him. Heal him...h_eal_.

Rathil started, remembering the coins that Vindicator man had given him. As his vision fuzzed and he started losing feeling, feeling faint from blood loss, he frantically pulled out the gold one, drawing upon everything in it all at once. Instantly, he felt he wounds heal. It was like breathing in Stormlight, except it healed much more quickly than that. He leapt to his feet, feeling energized and more alive than ever. His shirt was soaked with his own blood, but the wound was practically nonexistent. He was completely healed. He felt...good. The only problem was, there was nothing else in that coin for him to draw out. If he got hurt again, there was no healing for that unless he could get some Stormlight.

He looked back up at the battle, seeing the Inquisitor get Pushed away through the air by the Vindicator looking like a Terrisman. _No fair!_ Rathil thought. _That's _my _kill! _Nearby, he saw Tesh lying unconscious on the ground. There were two people walking toward her. One was that Alethi Vindicator, and the other was that Radiant man who Tesh had been fighting. Well, he knew which one was on Tesh's side, so no need to worry about the Vindicator. Rathil shoved the gold medallion in his pocket, then pulled out the steel one. He held it in his left fist so he could still punch with that hand and be able to tap the medallion. But he wouldn't use it all at once this time. He had to be sparing, had be careful. He charged past the Alethi girl at the man, who had some kind of large, silver-eyed cremling on his shoulder. The man turned to look at him dismissively, just like the Inquisitor had. A Shardblade appeared in his hand, and he swung at Rathil.

Rathil drew upon a bit of the power in the steel coin, and suddenly, that man seemed to be moving a little slower. This gave him time to duck through the wide, deadly swing, get up close, and deck the man in the jaw before he stopped tapping the metal's reserve. The Radiant stumbled back with a grunt, startled. Rathil lunged forward with his knife, but the Radiant just swept his Shardblade again as if to slice the blade right off Rathil's little dagger. Instead, the blades clanged against each other, much to the Radiant's surprise, as Rathil tapped the medallion again, ducked, and spun, narrowly missing the second swing. This time, be buried the dagger in the man's left shoulder. The Radiant cried out, leaping away from Rathil and sliding back across the ground. He looked down at the knife in his shoulder with disbelief, dismissed his Blade, then pulled the dagger free. The man inspected it curiously for a bit, then shrugged and began rising in the air.

_No, you don't_. Rathil tapped the steel coin again, sprinting at the man and colliding into him as he rose, pulling both of them upward. Rathil grabbed at his hand, trying to pry the knife free. The man held out his other hand to summon his Blade, and Rathil headbutted him. It hurt, but it distracted the Radiant. But then the big cremling flew over to Rathil's face, cheeping at him. Annoyed, he finished prying the knife back and grabbed the cremling thing by the head. Now that he wasn't holding on to the Radiant anymore, he fell to the ground, landing on his back. More pain, but nothing he couldn't handle. He was having trouble enough handling the squirming cremling in his hand. Why would a Radiant have something like this with him? Whatever it was, it was getting annoying and it was probably valuable to these Inquisition goons.

So Rathil promptly stabbed his dagger into its head, pinning it to the ground. He looked up to the Radiant, who'd blanched with shock, then glanced over to the Vindicator girl - who was walking to Tesh's unconscious body. _What the… _

**Quick:** I wondered if I could somehow escape the responsibility of managing the battle. Detrare could get a little...out of control, occasionally, and I wouldn't put it past him to take out his rage on me if the battle went poorly, even if he himself couldn't have done anything to help.

Tarenwel got to his feet; might as well explore his new environment. He quickly located a hallway that spiraled downward.

**Sami:** Sam knelt beside Tesh's body. Her hands shook, a blinding rage swirling within her. All rational thought was gone, hidden behind the thick fog of anger. She didn't know why she was doing this. All she knew was that Tesh deserved to be gone. _Needed_ to be gone. Her Shardblade appeared in her hand in the form of a knife. Raising her arm in a practiced motion, she began the movement that would do a clean slit of Tesh's throat...when her wrist was grasped in a strong hold that prevented it from moving. She blinked. The fog parted a little. _What…? _

**Fire:** Rathil leapt forward, grabbing the Vindicator by the wrist. "****ation, girl! What are you thinking?" Weren't these Knights supposed to be on the same side? Why was she going to try killing Tesh? He yanked the girl to her feet. "Look at me! Snap out of it! That's not the enemy!"

**Sami:** "Snap out of it! That's not the enemy!"

Sam jerked, the words cutting through the fog like a knife through butter as she was yanked roughly to her feet. She jerked her head and arm backwards, elbow jabbing sharply into the stranger's ribs as she stumbled forward out of his grip. The fight drained from her body. The words kept pounding through her head as she stared at the stranger with blazing eyes...and then Tesh's unconscious form.

She had been about to kill _Tesh - _Tesh, the girl she hated for her utter good-heartedness and well-meant naivety, but certainly not enough to kill. Her hand shook slightly, despite her desperate attempt to stop it. _How _had she lost control that badly?

**Fire:** Rathil grunted, rubbing the rib where that girl had elbowed him. "Fool girl. What were you thinking?" He turned around to look over at Tesh's body, but something else caught his eye. The Inquisitor. Sailing through the sky. And that blasted Terrisman was still going after him.

Detrare held in his anger. He could do that. He could remain calm. For now. "Have the Windrunner brought here," he told Eheron. "I want to know more about these Knights. In the meantime, I'll have to do my own research to get more information on the rest of them in case you fail to make Fist kill the rest of them." He narrowed his eyes at his Elantrian son. "Which I sincerely hope won't happen." He'd lost two Inquisitors already. With one more on the way, he couldn't lose this one.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix woke up from a stupor. He had collapsed after the fight and been out...how long? He knew there was no physical reason he should be fatigued after a fight, especially with gold to heal and bendalloy to restore mental fatigue. _It would be good to find out the reason for that_, Phoenix thought to himself. _But not today, more important things to dwell on. _He looked down to the battlefield. He saw Cole chasing the Inquisitor up in the air. Down below, the newcomer and Sam were turning to look up at the fight, but beside them was a body laying on the ground. _Tesh?_

Right at that moment, the Skybreaker rushed forward and grabbed Tesh's body while Sam and the newcomer were momentarily distracted and started to Lash himself away. "No!" Phoenix shouted. He inhaled Stormlight from the spheres in his pack and Elsecalled over to where Sam and the newcomer were standing. Phoenix attempted to Soulcast a barrier of stone in front of the Skybreaker, but was too late.

The Skybreaker sped off into the sky with Tesh, well beyond the level where any Coinshot would have been able to follow. Phoenix noted that Tesh's pouch, vial belt and daggers were all on the ground where Tesh had been lying earlier, seemingly an attempt by the Skybreaker to remove all metal from her person.

Phoenix turned back to Sam and the newcomer, who were still fixated on the battle above. "Um, excuse me, did any of you even notice what just happened? It appears Tesh has just been taken captive by the Inquisition! Unfortunately, the only one of us who could give pursuit to one who can fly that high is the very one who has just been taken captive."

**Fire:** Rathil cursed. He'd been so focused on watching the Inquisitor die that he'd ignored the still-living Radiant! And now he was making off with Tesh! He shook his head. "Well, we can't do anything about that now. Maybe the Terrisman there can deal with it once that Inquisitor is dead." He shot a suspicious look at the girl, wondering if she'd suddenly try to kill him too - you could never be too cautious - then glanced over at the other man who had appeared next to them. "Uh, thanks, by the way. Those coins kind of saved my life there."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix responded to the newcomer, "If by 'that Terrisman' you mean Cole, I don't know if there's much he could do to give chase, even if he wasn't tied up in that battle. Cole can Steelpush and Ironpull, as can I, but that Radiant flew far too high for steel to be effective, and he has divested himself of all metals so Lurching won't work either. By the way, I don't know if we ever officially met. I am known as Phoenix. How should I address you?"

**Fire:** "Rathil. From Scadrial. Where're you from?"

**Phoenix:** "Nice to meet you, Rathil. I'm an Elantrian from a planet called Sel. I have traveled to many worlds over the years, including yours. Harmony does a good job keeping things in order, for the most part - a much better job than Leras ever did, anyway."

**Quick:** Eheron nodded to Detrare, silently thanking the Skybreaker for being more competent then his companions. At least the Inquisition would get something out of this. Fist was still alive as well, which was good.

Tarenwel wandered downward through Urithiru, carefully bookmarking landmarks in his head for the return trip to the top of the tower.

**Fire:** Rathil blinked. He'd heard about this world called Sel already, and a thought tickled the back of his mind. A thought of visiting a new world, traveling somewhere he'd never been once again...he banished the thought. Not if his real home still existed. And not with this new enemy threatening it. He shook his head. "Well, we can't just let that Inquisitor get away. Are we going to help this Cole or not?" Glancing at the girl, he asked, "And who are _you_, anyway?"

**Tesh:** The young Knight girl slung over Sanrin's shoulder didn't move an inch. No twitching, thrashing, or anything like that. She didn't even seem to breathe. Well, most of that probably all came down to the fact that she had lost the use of her arms and legs. But someone should still move a little. A few minutes later, Sanrin turned and headed back toward the Peaks. They needed to get back to Scadrial. The Skybreaker rose on the opposite side of the peak from the Knights of the Cosmere. They were all positioned so that they wouldn't be able to see him. Perfect. Sanrin quickly jumped into the pool and, towing the girl behind him, swam down into the Cognitive Realm; when he emerged, he began to walk slowly to Scadrial, waiting for the rest to catch up.

**Cole:** As soon as I get close enough, I bring my Shardblade down at the Inquisitor. Before I can make contact, it deftly maneuvers itself sideways, escaping the Blade's path. Before I can pull my hand back, the Inquisitor's foot bashes my hand, knocking my sword into the air - where it disappears almost instantaneously. Seemingly out of nowhere, a chain whips out from the Inquisitor's hands, streaking towards my right hand holding my sword.

The hook at the end narrowly misses catching on to my hand, but when the the Inquisitor yanks it back, it pulls the blade out of my hand. It falls through the air, and without any hesitation I Pull myself to the ground after it. A second after it lands, I smash into the ground after it. Both my legs break, but they begin to heal instantly. Not even allowing myself to wait for them to fully heal, I painfully crawl the few feet over to my treasured weapon.

Relief floods through me when I lay my hands on it, then rage at the Inquisitor. I pull myself to my barely healed legs, then tap a massive amount of nicrosil and a large amount of weight. Blue lines suddenly connect everything, and I see the Inquisitor perfectly. Although there are many ways to kill it from such a distance, I choose the one that would leave the one controlling it in the dark about what happened. I close my eyes so all I see are the Allomantic lines, then Pull on half the lines connecting me to the Inquisitor and Push on the other half. The result is instantaneous death, the very blood pulled out of its body.

**Fire:** Rathil gaped at the Inquisitor corpse tumbling through the sky. That Terrisman called Cole had killed it _just like that_. "No!" he growled. "That was supposed to be _my _kill!"

"Well?" Detrare asked Eheron, glaring at him. "What is happening? How is the combat progressing?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix stares in shock. No, this can't be happening, they needed the Inquisitor _alive_. "You fools! Killing it should have never been the goal! Our only lead just died there with the Inquisitor!"

**Fire:** "You wanted it alive?" Rathil asked incredulously. "It's a monster! A blight on the cosmere! They're all better off dead!"

**Phoenix:** "Calm yourself, you're reacting emotionally and not logically," Phoenix snapped. "Of course this creature should be dealt with; I was only suggesting extracting useful information from it first! If you haven't noticed, we currently have very minimal intelligence on this New Inquisition. How do we plan a strategy with so little information? Allow me to lay out our current situation to you - first, we don't even have a clue where their base is, except that it is likely on Scadrial somewhere. Never mind that Scadrial is a fairly large planet. Why, most of the planet isn't even aware of a thriving, technologically advanced society exists at all on the southern continent! Second, assuming we can locate the base, we don't know what their strengths and weaknesses are, who are the biggest threats among their ranks, or what their goals and motives are. How can we effectively counter something we know nothing of?"

**Sami:** Sam glared at the two bickering men. "It's rusting dead, okay?" she growled. "Nothing we can do about that. There's no way to extract information from Inquisitors anyway."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix glanced over to Sam, slowly regaining an equilibrium once again. "Perhaps not. But there is one thing we can still do - a good old-fashioned autopsy. It would be best if we visited my old lab on Scadrial. Is there anything anyone needs to do here first? Perhaps we should consider fetching the rest of Tesh's followers from Urithiru. With her out of the picture, I don't feel comfortable leaving them behind."

**Quick:** Eheron frowned. Detrare would not take the news well. "Fist is dead, as are all the others, with the exception of Sanrin. He has managed to capture one of the Knights, however."

**Fire:** "_You're _telling _me _not to get emotional?" Rathil muttered to Phoenix under his breath. The fellow had reacted just as severely as he had when the Inquisitor had died. Though he supposed he saw reasoning in the man's words. A proper inspection or interrogation would have helped them get more information on this New Inquisition. Rathil then decided that he wasn't very fond of this Phoenix guy. He was annoying and scholarly, like Vashakh and Qwydyn. Rathil didn't hate him, but...well, he couldn't find himself liking him either. Cole, however...Rathil did find himself hating him. This Terrisman had infuriatingly killed the Inquisitor like it was no problem, taking what should have been his kill. By nature, Rathil simply decided to hate him. The same went for Tarenwel, that inconsiderate cremhole. And the girl with the auburn hair...had she told him her name? Well, whoever she was, he didn't know what to think of her. He certainly didn't trust her, seeing as she'd been willing to kill one of her own allies. Then again, she hadn't seemed herself when she did. He decided he'd be wary of her for now.

Rathil suddenly came to himself, asking himself as if for the first time, _What are you doing here, getting mixed up in all this? Just yesterday, you were all alone, ready to leave and go nowhere, and then you let yourself get pulled in this? And now you're just following along with everything they do, revealing your name like it's no problem? What is wrong with you? _It was happening again, wasn't it? He was starting to trust people, maybe care about them. They weren't his friends, they were his happenstance allies who shared a goal with him. He needed to end this New Inquisition soon, end it quickly. He needed this to be over before he started caring about these people. He couldn't let that happen. Every time he'd cared about someone, trusted them, and befriended them, they'd died. Idiot man! Why couldn't he just stop caring about others? He'd never cared about himself!

Himself...Rathil looked down the side of the mountain. He never had cared about himself...he should just jump off now, throw himself off the mountainside, hope it would end quickly…_NO_. He shook himself out of that familiar reverie. He had a mission now. He had a purpose. A new purpose in life. Destroy the Inquisition. "All right. Well, if that's settled," he grunted, "let's get to it. Back to Urithiru?"

"NOOO!" Detrare screamed. He strode toward Eheron, slapped him across the face, and yanked the gemstone back into his hands. Another Inquisitor, another _Exemplar_, another..._child _of his was dead. This couldn't be. This was the third one! With venom in his voice, Detrare seethed, "For your own good, get out of here now."


	8. Have Some New Characters

**Tesh:** Mahshi steps up to a window, one of the huge glass ones facing the Origin. He shivers. It feels unnatural to have nothing in between him and the birthplace of storms except for a wall of storming glass. He sits down on the floor, leaning against the wall of glass. If it's survived this long, it's not likely to break with a person simply leaning against it. He surveys the near-empty room. There's a table in the center, with a handful of chairs around it, and a nicer chair in a corner. The room of the first meeting of the Knights of the Cosmere, then known as the Surgefinders. _I guess I'm one of them now, _Mahshi thinks. And why wouldn't he be? He glances at a fabrial clock above the nice chair. Tesh and the others have been gone for over two hours.

**Phoenix:** "Perhaps I lost control momentarily, yes, but any group trying to create Inquisitors again needs to be eliminated completely for the good of the cosmere. It would upset the balance on Scadrial, thereby distracting Harmony, and Harmony has enough distractions as it is," Phoenix said, a touch of worry seeping through his voice.

He moved quickly with the Inquisitor's body, using a garnet from his pouch to infuse the Inquisitor with Soulcast blood, keeping the Inquisitor's spikes from losing the remainder of their charge. _Those could be useful as evidence_, Phoenix thought. Immediately afterward, he drew upon an amethyst he had set aside and began to Soulcast the air surrounding the Inquisitor into an aluminum shell, thereby depriving the body of oxygen and effectively preserving the body.

"All right, everyone gather around. It seems the consensus is to head back to Urithiru to regroup, gather the others, and plan." After everyone was there, Phoenix picked up the body and Elsecalled the group of them back to Urithiru.

**Quick:** Eheron inclined his head and exited the room.

**Fire:** Detrare raged.

He overturned his desk, tore down paintings, tore up his robes, scratched at himself and chose not to instantly heal from the cuts, screamed and growled, and did all he could to unleash the whims of his Passion. He was _angry _right now, and he was going to Ruin something. Anything. _Everything_. If anyone was unfortunate enough to be in the room with him, he'd be tearing them to bloody bits with his bare hands or with his knitting needles or spikes or _something_. This was rage, this was fury, this was Odium that he felt. Hatred for those Knights of the Cosmere for what they had done to him. They were no longer a small bother. They were an obstacle! This was the last time those Knights became a nuisance to him!

Now the Inquisition only had three or four turncoat Radiants remaining - that Skybreaker, their valuable Elsecaller, the Stoneward, and potentially that Dustbringer who was with the Knights. And this was the third Inquisitor he'd lost to them! No more! They were going to be destroyed along with the rest of Scadrial! As Detrare managed to slightly calm himself, he had a single overwhelming desire fill his mind. One that he was sure was suited to fulfilling his Passion. Vengeance. He needed vengeance. Yes, that would give him focus. He couldn't keep raging like this. He needed to get control of himself and take action. Unbridled Passion didn't get you far. You needed something to Devote it to in order to succeed. And he wanted revenge on these bloody Knights.

In fact, he was going to retaliate. Not at them, of course. He'd just tried that, and he'd lost Fist. No, no. When you want to really hurt your enemies, don't outright attack them with force. Use other methods. Turn them against each other. Starve them out. Interrogate them. Break away at their minds. Try to convert them to your cause or torture them. Make them feel powerless. Go instead for the ones they would seek to protect. Detrare let out a small, twisted grin. He would show them not to mess with them. He would show them as he wreaked destruction on their behalf and would let them feel the responsibility for it. _You kill my children, I kill innocent bystanders. From one bringer of death to another._

He stumbled over to the precious violet-red gemstone lying on the floor in the corner. Had he cracked it? Adonalsium send that he hadn't. He fell to his knees and picked the round gem up, cradling it in his arms. He could painfully sense that Fist was gone, his Connection cut off. But Sanrin was still there, and he had that Knight with him. Detrare could interrogate her, torture her, perhaps even...convert her. At the very least, he would get more information about those Knights from her.

He reached out with his mind, looking for...yes, there they were. A small group of nine koloss, waiting in a basement room within the Inquisition's fortress, ready to move out at a moment's notice. He had already taken control of them using zinc, and his Connection to them through the orb only augmented it.

Detrare spoke to the minds of six of them, whispering, "Take up your weapons and leave. You are going to bring Ruin to a village." Then to the mind of Lenali, the Elsecaller, he said, "Leave with the koloss and transport them to the nearest small village in the Physical Realm." Then to all of them, he simply said, "Bring Ruin to the innocent."

He lowered the orb, letting out a small smile. There. That would be a small relief. A tiny village of pioneering Scadrians wiped out by a surprise attack from some _very _angry koloss would make Detrare feel a _little _better about Fist's demise. Striding across the room, he lifted the desk back upright, picked up the box, placed the gemstone inside it, and tucked it into a drawer in the desk. _Now, to talk to my other child…_

Detrare stood back up, healed his self-inflicted wounds, and walked out the door, where he knew Eheron would be waiting in the hallway. It was time to talk to him, to...forgive him of his failure. But there was more to it than just that. For Detrare knew that the time was coming. It tickled the back of his mind, but he knew. With this interference from the Knights of the Cosmere, the Inquisition would have to move up their timetable. In a few weeks time, perhaps even less...he would finally commence with the Fulfilment.

**Quick:** Eheron nodded to Detrare as he exited the room. "What...will our reply be, master?" he asked.

**Fire:** "Oh, my son," Detrare said, shaking his head and smiling. He walked up to Eheron and calmly placed a hand on his cheek. "Ever the loyal one, always ready for what comes next for us. You do me proud, I tell you. And don't worry, I've already sent some of our koloss to destroy a village. Nothing those Knights will be able to stop. Others will pay the price for their interference."

He lowered his hand, looking at the ground. "I am sorry for striking you. I simply needed an outlet in that moment. That failure was not entirely your fault. Part yours, part mine, part theirs. But I know you would never willingly fail me. You did the best you could, as did I. For that, I am proud of you, my boy. Never forget that. I always am. You are family to me. We share not only a Devotion to our cause, but also to one another." Detrare beamed with pride. "I've always said you were my favorite child. And I must admit, that was a smart decision, having their leader brought here instead of killing her. Well done to you, me, and to Sanrin." He chuckled.

**Quick:** Eheron nodded, allowing a slight twitch to touch his lips. Though naturally grim, he truly was Devoted to the cause. "So," he returned, "We will attack innocents in order to provoke the Knights?"

**Fire:** "Yes, basically. And whenever they make it back to Scadrial, it will have already been too late for them. They might never even know that town was destroyed because of them! Which leaves me to wonder - should I let them know this is being done in retribution against them, or should that knowledge be kept from them, leaving them to forever wonder why such harm befell those innocents? Bah, whatever the case - chin up, my son. We have suffered defeat, but we are going to make up for it...quite, quite soon. I believe..." Detrare paused, almost excited to say it, "...that it may be time for the Fulfilment to begin in its entirety. We are nearly ready to bring full Ruin to Scadrial and beyond."

**Quick:** Eheron blinked in surprise. "So soon, master?"

**Fire:** "Unfortunately, yes," Detrare said. "Our timetable has been moved upward by recent events. Or perhaps I should say that we are fortunate. After all, we've been preparing for this for centuries. We have grown in strength and number. We are close enough to being ready. I know it comes as a surprise, and I am sure it will to the rest of them, but I feel it is what must be done.

It will either have to start with or coincide with the Ruination of the Knights of the Cosmere. Which reminds me," he turned back to his office room, "I will need to get information and histories from our spies on each individual member of their group. After all, knowing the enemy is key to ending them." He chuckled again.

**Quick:** Eheron nodded. "I will search our records."

**Fire:** "Thank you, son." Detrare inclined his head. "For now, I will have to take a rest. And perhaps you should too. This has been a long day for both of us."

Rathil tried not to vomit as he was instantaneously transported once again. After taking a moment to hold in his dinner and breathe deeply, he looked around at where he was now. Back in Urithiru, the fabled city of the Radiants.

He then remembered the medallions he had with him. He pulled the two of them out of his pouch, then held them up for Phoenix to see. "Um...thanks for letting me use these," he said awkwardly. He wasn't used to thanking others for things like this. "They saved my life. You...you mind if I hold on to them?"

**Quick:** Eheron nodded and walked off.

**Phoenix:** "No thanks needed, I am glad they were of use to you." Phoenix picked up the gold medallion in Rathil's hand. "You will need a new one of these, however, as this one has been depleted." Phoenix pulled out a new gold medallion from his pouch and handed it to Rathil. "Take care not to let yourself get hurt too much in battle. I only have enough of these to give out one to each of you at a time. Once it runs out of health, it will not recharge itself. For that to be done efficiently, you need one who can Compound gold."

**Sami:** Sam remained silent. There was simply nothing to say. Besides, she would only screw everything up even more than she already had. _You're a failure. _her subconscious reminded her. _Can't even keep control of your own body and take responsibility for your own actions. They were depending on you to do your job and you _failed _them._

Her eyes landed on the newcomer - Rathil, he called himself - as Phoenix handed him another little metalmind, presumably for later battles. He had stopped her from killing Tesh, from taking another life against _her_ will, from possibly losing the trust of everyone she herself had come to...almost...trust.

Despite this, Sam felt a slight feeling of resentment towards him that was completely irrational. For the second that Sam had about to ruin everything for herself - her will, her sanity - and Rathil had stopped her, Sam had been dependent on him against her will. Whether or not she liked it, without him, she would have destroyed everything and Sam hated that. She hated being needy.

**Shadow:** If my mind were fully my own, perhaps I would feel repulsed by myself. Featherless, fleshless wings protrude from odd angles all around our bloated body, somehow keeping us afloat. But not for much longer. The trail of corrupted Investiture that used to stream from us is barely a trickle now. Soon, the very Investiture that creates my own form will be gone.

Our bones ache. We are growing anxious. Gaize and I are beginning to separate without Investiture to power the Shadowmancy that fused us in the first place. Our wings are not as numerous as before, and we drift closer to the misty ground. "Hunger. We...hunger."

Something happens. A reverberation across the Realms. A command has been given in the name of Ruin. But, is not Ruin dead? Fused to become Harmony? We sense it, with our twisted spiritweb. A voice calling to destroy, to Ruin. We could not have felt it if we were not in this form. And we obey…Slowly, we begin to drift in the direction of the voice, the direction of its Intent. The direction of those who were called upon to destroy. The direction, we sense, of food…

**Fire:** "So...I can't fill one up on my own?" Rathil asked, puzzled. He really needed to get a better understanding of Feruchemy. He had never learned much about it, as he had almost never met any Terris people back on Scadrial.

Lenali and the six koloss materialized into the Physical Realm, standing in a field of red dust out in the Roughs, just a few miles away from a small town. Lenali immediately disappeared again, returning to the Cognitive Realm and leaving the koloss to their own business. They were all heavily armed with large maces, clubs, morning stars, and even a couple classic koloss blades, made by Req Carlton. They didn't need someone to command them now. They knew where to go and what to do. Shouting with Passion, they charged in the direction of the city. They were going to Ruin, Ruin, Ruin.

**Phoenix:** "Actually, technically you _can_ fill one. You would just need to be sick for an extended period of time as you fill the metalmind within the medallion, that is, the gold part. The reason you can tap into this ability, similar to that of a gold Ferring, is because this medallion has been created with an unkeyed metalmind.

Now, this is inefficient, as to store health you normally have to make yourself unhealthy or sick for a time. I, however, also happen to have the Allomantic ability of burning gold as an Augur, which makes me a gold Compounder. This means that since I possess both the Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities associated with gold, I can burn some of the gold in one of my metalminds that already contains health, which gives a burst of health ten times that of burning normal gold that does not already have health stored in it. If I choose to store some of this health instead of expending it, I have just created a much greater amount of health than when I started, without ever needing to become sick."

Phoenix, ignoring Rathil's yawn, continued since he was clearly too deep into this and enjoying himself far too much.

"Going further...now, stop me please if this is too much...you really need the abilities of a full Feruchemist to actually create a medallion from scratch, as you need someone who can also store Investiture, Identity and Connection. Two of the metals related to those abilities are in that medallion surrounding the gold metalmind. Do you see the outer rings of metal? Those are duralumin and nicrosil, for storing the related Connection and Investiture that is required. The third metal required is aluminum. I store Identity in a separate aluminum metalmind while I am filling the gold metalmind initially along with the rings of the medallion with Investiture and Connection, so the resulting metalmind is unkeyed, or having no Spiritual Identity."

**Fire:** "Uh...okay, then," Rathil said slowly. He thought got the general gist of it. "Well, in that case, I think I'll hold on to it just in case. I can manage being sick for a bit." He put the medallions back in his pocket. "Besides, if I need to, I can just heal myself with Stormlight."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looks up with surprise. "Wait a minute, didn't you say you just arrived on this world? How is it you are able to access Stormlight without the assistance of a Nahel bond? Or do you have some kind of means of converting the Stormlight into a different form of Investiture you already have Connection to, perhaps?"

**Shadow:** We see them now. A group of koloss, already enraged and ready to kill. Their spikes appear as red lights to my eyes, standing out starkly from the glow of their compound souls. Compound souls like ours. Two minds, forced to share a single space.

"Food. _Food_." It is...not conducive to higher reasoning. Or sanity.

With the speed of a panther, we dart forward, bladed feet extended, our beak opening wide. Bone wings trill against each other with a melody not unlike a cricket's. Our feet touch the first koloss, at the back of the pack, and they stab deeply. Into the spikes.

And we slip into its mind. Thank Ruin for making this so much easier for us.

Confusion floods our host, and it stops running. The world around us brightens as we see it fully in the Physical Realm. _What...are you? _

_Mmm,_ we sigh with satisfaction. _A very rich mind, here. _

It becomes frantic, and large blue fingernails begin to tear at its temples. _What are you?! _

_My, you are a tasty one. Look at all these memories! _

And we devour. All that was. The former lives of the two beings who created the koloss. The memories that it obtained as a compound entity. Oh, how we feast! And we learn. Much to think on.

We slip out of the body and back into the Cognitive Realm. It drops to the ground and does not move, sightless eyes wide in terror. Ahead the koloss are making for the town still. Much to think on. After we have filled our essence with more of these memories.

**Fire:** "No, I've been on Roshar for quite a while, but...uh...it's a bit more complicated than that," Rathil said. "I'm not bonded to anything like you said, but...I think it's because of my soul." How was he supposed to explain this stuff to a storming scholar? He was never good with talking about this kind of thing. "It's been, um, broken by lots of things that happened to me, so I guess it just...lets Stormlight seep in to try healing it or something. It might be because I burnt atium too much. Someone once told me I'd become a savant with the metal, and burning it long enough changed my soul even more. Expanded it, you could say. So yeah, I think it's because of atium." Which was why he called himself the Shattered Soul. If you're broken by enough events, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, it cracks your soul wider and wider, letting Investiture fill it. And he'd gone through lifetimes of all of that pain: physical, mental, and emotional. But he wasn't going to keep telling Phoenix about that.

Tesh had told him about Immortal Words that gave one access to Stormlight. He was pretty sure he'd never said them, but he really couldn't remember. It wasn't like he could remember every detail of his three hundred-something years of life. Just the moments that were the most unforgettable.

The koloss didn't even notice when one of their number fell, clawing at its head, having its mind ripped away. They kept on charging. Only a couple miles away from that town.

**Shadow:** If we had blood, it would have been rushing then. Our excitement grows as we see the koloss ahead, and realize their origin. The first koloss didn't have much in the way of location of the New Inquisition, but the others might. Best eat them all, just to be sure.

Our feeding grows wild, unchecked, as we slam into the next koloss mind. It struggles harder than the first, and scratches desperately at its face. As we rip away memories and identity, it screams. The other koloss are almost too enraged and bloodthirsty to notice it, but one of them turns and is shocked by the sight of its companion digging its own eyes out.

_Detrare, hmm?_ I relish the pain and the terror, sucking the sweet nectar of suffering like honey from a broken hive. I leave the beast to die, not finishing my course, as the third koloss rushes forward to ascertain who or what is attacking them.

This one, unfortunately, is ready for a fight. "Our. Head," it growls at us, and Gaize seems impressed by its resistance.

_It has resisted influence before,_ he notes. _Perhaps he did not want to serve Detrare._

_He doesn't want to die, either, unfortunately._ I slash viciously at its memories with my own. It has known fear, yes. So have I. In my long lifetime I have seen worse than this poor brute could ever imagine. I plunge those fears, those memories, into its consciousness.

"Our. Head!" It screams, and the koloss who paused to see what the matter was before now are growing frightened.

Another force suddenly hits me then. Someone has noticed the loss of the other koloss. White-hot pain streaks through our mind, and our wings clench violently. _Ours!_ We grasp at the mind, plunging our thoughts and memories into it to grab hold.

"HEAD!" A screech so loud its own ears pop, and then the koloss' mind snaps in two. The third of their number tumbles to the ground in agony and disbelief. Memories leak from it like blood from a wound.

Our beak opens wide with delight, and we drink in the Investiture. _Let's not waste time with the next one,_ Gaize says, and I agree. With fresh power surging through us, we dart forward and clamp our beak over another koloss, covering it down to its knees.

Using Shadowmancy and the excess Investiture we have consumed, we Syphon the idea of cohesiveness, of identity, of very _existence_, away from the koloss beneath our jaws. In a flash its body is pulled into the Cognitive Realm, disappearing as we transform it completely into Investiture. Tilting our head back we let it slide into our throat, and the koloss screams as it dissolves into nothingness. _Ah-ha! There it is._ The location of Detrare's base takes form in our mind, and we fix it there.

Red light begins to trail from us now. Our symbol-shaped eyes dance wildly in ever-shifting patterns. Corrupted Investiture. Mixing of powers. It brought our forms together. Now, filled with power beyond stability, we begin to separate. Wings begin to shrink back into the bloated body. They merge with each other and scales form, then the scales retreat and feathers sprout. The blades retract into our feet and with a cry of pain we feel talons emerge again.

And then Gaize tilts back his head, beak already shrinking, and coughs. I erupt from within him, and he shrinks down to a normal-sized bird.

"Shades," I whisper, standing on my feet. "Oh shades, I..." I look at the koloss left. "Our haste was not enough."

Gaize seems to smile at me. _But what a feast._

The full force of what we have done hits me, and I stagger to the vaporous ground. _Oh merciless shades._ I clench my teeth and grasp my head. _I...destroyed their minds. I destroyed their _souls. _I _ate _their _souls! Forcing myself not to vomit - what would I have forced up, anyway - I look at the koloss again. The two I did not completely destroy have finally died. What happens now to those still left?

**Fire:** Detrare had been relaxing from the stress of the day. He had turned back to the knitting, as the tapestry he'd been working on for the past few years was nearly complete. He'd started making it when he knew the Fulfilment would need to happen in a short amount of time, for the tapestry had a purpose in his designs. It was a message he was waiting to send. He was also working on it now because he needed a small break. But his mind was clouded with worry, and he couldn't place why. Something was off, even missing. He could tell something was going wrong. So he had gone back to the gemstone, picked it up, and gasped in shock.

Two of the koloss he'd sent were dead already. His Connection to them had been ripped away, and he could tell that someone was interfering with their minds. No wonder something had felt wrong to him. He was controlling those through burning zinc, and use of the orb only strengthened the mental and spiritual bond, allowing him to know exactly where they were. So when one died, he could feel a twinge in his soul. But he couldn't know the exact state of the Hemalurgic constructs he was Connected to until he was in contact with the gem. But how had they died? Surely they hadn't reached the town already? Were they faster than he'd anticipated? Had there been a lawman guarding the town who was an accomplished Allomancer or Feruchemist?

Another koloss was dying. No, this wasn't a conventional death. Something was actually ripping away its mind, memories, and soul, somehow devouring its Connection and spiritweb. What was this thing? Detrare seized control of that specific koloss, willing it to push forward and fight the pain, forcing his control over the creature's mind against whatever was attacking it. "Leave my koloss alone," he growled to whatever was causing this mayhem. A small part of him was glad that things were being Ruined, but he was frustrated that the Ruin was happening to his _own _things.

Suddenly, the beast's mind snapped like a neck, and he felt it die away. No! No, no, no, NO, _NO_! He was losing his heaviest hitters to an unknown force, and there was nothing he could about it! He screamed and growled in frustration, trying to wrest control over the next creature's mind as whatever was attacking them began to consume its soul as well. This was wrong. This was all _so very wrong_. Why couldn't things just go the way he planned them to as they had for the past few centuries? Why were so many things going wrong only now?

"NO!" he screamed. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! He was supposed to get his vengeance on those Knights by slaughtering the innocent they would have wanted to protect, and another party entirely, it seemed, was now interfering with even that! Or was this the work of those Knights? He really couldn't tell, but whatever the case was, he was not going to let this end now. He cried out in frustration again as the fourth koloss died, but as he kept his attention on them, he could sense no more influence on the last two. They were most likely confused and terrified, but they were otherwise unaffected. "Your mission has not changed," he said to their souls. "Keep moving. Bring Ruin."

He would have his revenge yet. Having only a third of the koloss he'd sent to the job would make it more difficult, but they would follow through with it anyway.

About ten minutes later, the two remaining koloss reached the outskirts of the town of Yedem, scared and confused by the deaths around them, but still charging forward at their master's command. If they'd had a will of their own, they might have stopped by now from exhaustion, for it wasn't healthy to be running as long as they had. But they were Devoted to their task, and that task was Ruin.

A lone man with gray skin and a muscular build stood guard in the middle of the road at the edge of the city, a shotgun in one hand and a dueling club in the other. He was no Allomancer or Feruchemist, but he was koloss-blooded, and he was the town lawman. He would protect his town from whatever came against it. He was confused to see creatures of his own blood to be charging at him, wielding old-fashioned weapons that looked like they came out of Final Empire history. The fact that they were his own kind made him not want to fight them, but instead wonder why they were doing what they were doing.

He'd fought and killed humans with no inhibitions before, because deep down, he considered himself a koloss. He'd initially been ashamed of it, but decided to own up to it, making himself a member of both worlds. He actually got a little excited every time he saw an actual koloss because of how rarely it happened. Even if he would never be considered one of them unless he was spiked, he wanted to impress them and show that he could be both koloss and human the way he was. These creatures were his heritage and his history. He would never want to kill one.

Except these ones looked angry and bloodthirsty. He didn't want to fight them, as he would always consider them his kind, but he would if he had to. This was his town to protect. Reluctantly, the lawman leveled the shotgun to around his chest, cocked and loaded as it was, and fired right at one of the koloss, ignoring the pain of the gun's kick. His shot hit it in the shoulder near the neck, and it grunted, shrugging off the pain as well. No stopping it.

The lawman narrowed his eyes, knowing the inevitable. This couldn't be dealt with peacefully. He charged forward against the race he so admired with all the dignity he could muster, swinging the club and the shotgun like they were swords. He was cut down right away by the injured koloss as it slammed its mace through his skull.

They both kept charging as they had before, swingin their weapons wildly. People ran in terror from them, but they weren't fast enough. Men, women, horses, dogs, chickens, and everything living on the street were cut down effortlessly. Wagons, doors, and walls were smashed as they destroyed everything in sight. Townspeople continued fleeing, a lucky few of them managing to get on their horses and in their wagons and escape at high speed, before the koloss reached them. If all six of the creatures had been there, no one would have had a chance to escape. Whatever had killed them had at least made sure of that.

But the damage was done. The brutes kept on hacking and slashing, destroying everything near them. Within minutes, every building in town was demolished, half-destroyed, or outwardly damaged, and half the people had died. Even still, a few tried putting up a fight, getting their own guns to they could protect their homes and families. They saw that one of them had been wounded, and took their shots at it, even though it ignored the pain.

The injured koloss ended up getting shot in the arms, shoulders, and neck multiple times, and while it didn't die right away, they were fatal wounds that would soon kill it. But those who fought back were eventually cut down as well until the koloss were the only ones left in the broken down town. Some of the people had escaped, taking only their steeds and the clothes they were wearing, and the creatures were too exhausted by now to continue pursuing them. They had done their duty. They had brought Ruin for the sake of their master's vengeance.

**Phoenix:** "Being broken is nothing new. In fact, most of those who end up with the Nahel bond have themselves been broken in some form or fashion. Without more information, I'd have said that you had indeed said the Words, or some variant that the spren considered close enough, and attracted one of them. But this thing you said about being an atium savant? I didn't even think enough atium had been found in the Pits to make that assertion even possible. Do you even understand the implications of such a thing? Atium is no ordinary metal. It is the physical manifestation of Ati himself, the former holder of the Shard of Ruin. I have never even considered the possibility of someone gaining savantism with that metal.

Oh, the implications! Yes, this would indeed greatly affect your spiritweb, but without further study I cannot conjecture as to what the exact effects would be. Please tell me more; what effects you have experienced after your prolonged use of atium? Do you still see small glimpses of the future as you would receive when burning atium?"

**Fire:** Rathil was getting a bit unsettled by Phoenix's sudden excited interest. Why did he have to mention his savantism? He had always been good at hiding things! What was possessing him to admit things like this?

Too late now; he might as well explain it. Honestly, it would feel good to actually explain his special abilities out loud, he figured. "Uh, okay...so after burning atium long enough after I lived in Luthadel, it left some permanent changes in me. Yes, I can sort of see the future even when not burning it, but not really _see _it. It's like I can anticipate it, or...get an intuition about what's going to happen in the next few seconds.

There are no atium shadows anymore; those were only there when I was burning atium, and it's been a very long time since I did that. But when I could burn atium, I got really good at it. I knew what people would say right before they spoke from lip-reading. I could dodge attacks with my eyes closed or without looking just because I _knew _what was there. Since it's been a long while, I'm not so good at it anymore. I'm still a savant, but not as much as I used to be. So basically, I can slightly anticipate the near future, and I can inhale Stormlight to heal myself, but can't use any Knight Radiant powers that should probably come with it."

Rathil took a breath after saying all that. He'd finally explained it to someone out loud. That actually did have a certain satisfaction to it. The fact that Phoenix seemed very interested in hearing it actually made him less wary about explaining it, strangely enough.

The two remaining koloss trotted back the way they had come, bright red blood dripping to the ground from cut and gunshot wounds to form a slight trail behind them, now satisfied with the destruction they had caused. Unbeknownst to them, the one controlling them was somewhat satisfied as well, as he had at least gotten retribution in the town being destroyed. Even so, some of the people had escaped, and would either die in the wilderness or make it to another town as refugees spread the word of a koloss attack.

As the two were exhaustedly walking away from the town, the heavily injured one finally collapsed from blood loss, crumpling to the earth and sending up a plume of red dust. The last one took note of it, picked up its mace, and continued walking while trying to heft three weapons at once.

**Phoenix:** "Hmm...interesting. It seems you have come very close to savantism, but not quite, as further evidenced by the decrease in your abilities over time and your not being dependent on the metal for your very survival. Also, it is highly theorized that one who has achieved a full savantism with atium or lerasium will actually Ascend to become the new Vessel. But you obviously have not Ascended, and we know that the Shard of Ruin was passed from Ati to Sazed before merging with Preservation to become the new Shard of Harmony," Phoenix murmured.

"It does seem like you were close, however, as evidenced by the expansion of your spiritweb, presumably due to your soul's anticipation of Ascension. And since Stormlight is Investiture primarily of the Spiritual Realm, this would explain how you are able to use it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you are able to develop abilities further than simply healing yourself with Stormlight.

Most people need the assistance of the Nahel bond with a certain type of spren to tap into the full abilities that are granted via Stormlight; I do not believe you have this barrier to overcome, due to your expanded spiritweb. However, without the assistance of a spren to guide you, you will have to figure these things out on your own. But who knows the limit of your potential on this world? You could become greater in power than any Radiant, perhaps even one of the Heralds."

**Fire:** Rathil blinked. "Uh..." _What_? Was that true? Could he really become something like that? Did he really want something like that? Of course not; he wasn't a storming Radiant. He was no warrior or soldier or knight, or anything like that. He was just a thief and a killer who watched friends and family die when he couldn't save them. He was a petty man who relied on Stormlight and intuition to keep him alive so he could keep on wasting his life away.

He didn't want to become "greater in power than any Radiant". He didn't even know or care about the details of what burning his metal for so long did to him. Ascension? Him? No. He was just Rathil. Nothing more than that. Now...now he was just a worldhopper who wanted to destroy the Inquisition. He couldn't stay on Roshar. Not now that he knew he could go back to Scadrial. He had to see for himself. "Anyway...I've gotta ask - when are we going back to Scadrial?"

**Phoenix:** "Soon. We need to gather supplies from the markets here for our journey. In addition, we need to ensure none of Tesh's group are left behind. Wasn't there another from your world who was brought here with you? A lawman?"

**Sami:** Phoenix was instantly enthralled by Rathil. Sam sighed, walking over to the wall and sliding down against it. She rested her head on her knees, her head instantly filled with conflicting thoughts that made her brain ache. She was tired of it all. She just wanted to...stop thinking. Get out of this mess. Maybe leave, make a new start.

"You keep running away. That's not like you. You should stand up and...what are you always saying? Never show you're breaking, bit by bit."

_Does she even understand what that means? _Sam lifted her head a little.

Era looked at her, clearly unhappy. "You've been ignoring me."

"I know, and I'm sorry," she whispered. "Things have been tough."

"But...I can help you. You're pushing everyone away. Is it because of Tesh?"

"I..." Sam didn't know how to respond. _Nobody's been there to push away. _"I'm sorry." She didn't say anything more. _Couldn't_ say anything more.

As Era left, clearly hurt and confused, Sam rested her head back on her knees with another sigh. What was up with her? She had held together for a year, so why was she suddenly falling apart now?

**Quick:** Eheron entered the archives of the Inquisition's base, ordering several of the librarians to search for records on the Knights.

Tarenwel looked into several rooms on the way down. Each had been empty, and looked to have been empty for a long time. Strange lights like glowing gems lit the building.

**Fire:** Rathil scoffed. "Sure, sure. It's probably for the best if we leave him behind here. The less I have to be around _him_, the better."

He looked over at the young woman who'd almost killed Tesh, who was hunched up by a wall. He still didn't know who she was, and if he was going to join these Vindicators, he would have to make sure he at least got acquainted with them. Not because he wanted to be friends with them, but because he wanted to know how well he could trust them. After all, one of them tried to kill her ally, and another had killed a storming Inquisitor by ripping the blood out of its body. Who was to say he wouldn't do that to anyone else?

Anyway, the girl looked...troubled. She hadn't seemed herself when she almost killed the Surgefinder. He found himself pitying her. She shouldn't blame herself too much, right? And she shouldn't feel how she was feeling. It seemed wrong to him that some people were put through pain when they didn't deserve it. Only he himself deserved to feel this pain, not other people like these. Well, him and monsters like Inquisitors and their rotten minions. Come to think of it, lots of people deserved to suffer. But not people like this girl. She was too young for that.

"Excuse me for a bit," Rathil said to Phoenix, slowly stepping toward the young lady. He sat back against the wall and slid down to sit by her.

After a moment's pause, he asked, "So, um...you doing all right now? Not going to turn on anyone again? I hope not. I won't tell anyone about that, though, don't worry." Stupid. What was he saying? Why was he saying this? Sure, there was enough going on that the others didn't need to know about stuff like that, but was he really trying to comfort her? Whatever happened to not caring about other people?

**Sami:** "Not going to turn on anyone again? I hope not. I won't tell anyone about that, though, don't worry." Rathil hesitantly slid down the wall next to her. Sam resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his awkward attempt at comfort.

"Rusts, I'm not worried about that." Because the most important person affected was herself. And there was no way she could stop herself from knowing about her own actions. "Knowing Cole, he'd probably even go so far as to congratulate me if I went through with it." She didn't look at him, but she could hear the concern in his voice. Why was he so concerned about her?

**Fire:** "Cole?" Rathil whispered, looking over at the Terrisman. _He _would have congratulated it? Encouraged it?

That made a swell of anger rise in Rathil. As someone who had run effective thieving crews of his own, he knew how wrong it was to turn on a member of your own team. It was disgraceful. Shameful. By that reasoning, he should have been disgusted by the Vindicator girl's actions. The only reason he didn't was...well, because she hadn't seemed herself. She had seemed like she wanted to do it, but at the same time didn't.

Maybe that was why he pitied her. Because she nearly did something he normally would have been disgusted by, but didn't seem to want it. But with the attitude she was showing, she didn't seem regretful. Maybe part of her _had _wanted to kill Tesh. Whatever the case, she seemed shaken up by it. She'd almost murdered an ally, after all.

He realized that trying to be comforting was just stupid. What would he say anyway? "Well, anyway," he said, trying not to sound as concerned as before, "I just want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Gotta be united if we're gonna stop this enemy, eh? And I wouldn't want to get stabbed in the back, accident or not."

If there was anything to know for sure, it was that he was not going to trust Cole, and he would have to be wary of the girl. Though he had to stop thinking of her as just 'the girl' or 'the Vindicator'. "What's your name, girl?"

**Sami:** Was Tesh an ally? Sam found herself wondering. And this stranger, talking so readily about being united and stopping the enemy together...was he suddenly an ally? Obviously Phoenix had gone ahead and offered _the Vindicators'_ services, but that didn't mean that either Sam or Cole saw Tesh and her followers as friends, although they would respect the agreement Phoenix had made on their behalf...probably.

Though this middle-aged guy didn't seem bad. He had actually looked concerned for her - something she had grown not to expect since she was eight, and was still surprised and more than a little uncomfortable the scarce few times it happened.

Then she realized he had asked her a question. "Sam."

**Fire:** _Sam_. That was her name. Rathil counted them all out in his head. There were Sam, Tesh, Phoenix, Cole, Mahshi, and Tarenwel representing the Knights of the Cosmere. About a half-and-half split between the two factions. Sam, Cole, and Phoenix with the Vindicators, and Tesh, Mahshi, and Tarenwel with the Surgefinders. Except there was also that Alethi woman who had greeted Tesh. Maybe she was another Surgefinder.

And Rathil...was he going to be with the Vindicators now? Could he join them? Would he even try to? Whatever. There were also Vashakh and Qwydyn, but they didn't seem too interested in delving into these matters. Though Rathil still hadn't lost the thought of Qwydyn taking him to visit Sel. Maybe after all this was over. If it would ever be over.

"Well, Sam," he said, trying to remove the concern from his voice, "I think I'd like to join you Vindicators. Am I welcome to?" Idiot. This would not end well for him, so why was he trying? These people were just going to end up dead all around him just like everyone else he'd ever teamed up with. He would join them just because their goals and motivations aligned.

**Sami:** There it was. What he came to talk about. Well, this guy didn't waste too much time beating around the bush, and she was thankful for that. If he had wasted any more time dropping implicit hints she probably would have punched him. She lifted her shoulder in a small shrug. "Depends," she said, "on what we think of you. And what you think of us."

**Fire:** "Good," Rathil said. "Well, I don't care what you've done, I just care about what you'll do working with me from now on." The same mantra he'd given to everyone he'd had in a crew before. "Then I'm one of you now. If you're really all about what I've heard, then that fits me. Kill whoever you need to get the job done."

**Sami:** "And if we aren't?" Sam asked dryly. "Dude, we're the ones who decide when you're one of us, and from the look of disgust you wore when I mentioned Cole, you evidently do care about our past."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix perks up with interest from his notes, by happenstance overhearing this newcomer, Rathil, wanting to join the Vindicators. He walks over to where Rathil and Sam are having their conversation. The first thing he hears clearly is "If you're really all about what I've heard, then that fits me. Kill whoever you need to get the job done."

Sam returned, "And if we aren't? Dude, we're the ones who decide when you're one of us, and from the look of disgust you wore when I mentioned Cole, you evidently do care about our past."

Phoenix looks at Sam questioningly, to see if it was all right to enter the conversation. With an eye roll, followed by a brisk nod from Sam, Phoenix kneels down beside them. "I personally do not care for your personal feelings towards me or the others, but I agree with Sam - if you do indeed wish to join us, _we_ will decide such, if we deem you worthy, and if you can prove your usefulness to us.

As for killing...we don't just kill indiscriminately on our way to getting the job done..." Phoenix glances over at Cole lounging close by, watching them with a sly look on his face. "...well, at least not all of us. I would say we get the job done in the most efficient and effective way possible, and if that means bloodshed, even of innocents, so be it. We are in a global war, with the fate of the cosmere in the balance. If we start worrying about single lives here and there we will miss the bigger picture entirely, and our enemies will be able to use this weakness against us. At the same time, going in the front door and wasting time killing all the hostiles may not be the most effective route, and could waste valuable time. We, ahem, are not always in agreement on this point."

**Nohadon:** A young man wearing a red cloak walks into the room. "Hey! I heard about this little thing called the Knights of the Cosmere!" he says. "Mind if I join? My home world is currently being ruled by a tyrant who wants to kill people with my abilities, so I found someone who showed me the way out! I can make these things called unsealed metalminds, which can give pretty neat powers to anyone!" He sits on the floor, waiting.

**Tesh:** The group falls silent. Mahshi stares at the newcomer from his position next to the window. "Who _are _you?" he asks quietly.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix turns around and looks over the newcomer. "I assume you're from Scadrial then? The last time that world has been ruled by a tyrant was centuries ago, before the Lord Ruler was deposed, Ruin was defeated and Harmony Ascended. You seem to be a little out of date on things. Now, I have heard rumors recently that there is a group on Scadrial who has been _kidnapping_ primarily female Mistings and Ferrings, although I cannot fathom to what end. Also, we already have these unsealed metalminds you speak of. Very useful, especially if one has the ability to Compound. Now what I would really like to know is how you managed to find us? Did you perhaps encounter a certain Scadrian lawman on your way up here?"

**Tesh:** Mahshi stares in shock at the man. _Phoenix,_ he thinks. _That's his name. _"What are you doing here? And how did you find out about us?" Mahshi asks the newcomer, standing up.

**Fire:** _Wonderful_, Rathil thought. Another new person. What hand of an unknown god was directing their actions? Whatever the case was, this was all just getting weirder and weirder. Too much. Rathil told himself he'd probably wait till after he joined the Vindicators and destroyed the Inquisition before he finally killed himself out of exasperation with all the weird stuff going on. That'd be better than death by depression, wouldn't it?

Leaning over to Sam, he said, "Well, if I can't trust any of you to not kill me, at least I can trust you all to get the job done." Then to Phoenix, he said, "Then let's hope I can prove myself worthy to join you." Already he was thinking about how many minions of the Inquisition he'd have to kill before they'd see how much they would need him. He glanced at the red-robed man who had walked in. "And who the storms are you?"

**Nohadon:** "Wait, really? That's great! Next time this little group visits Scadrial, I'll join you! As to how I found you, I was wandering around Shadesmar and these things with red eyes shoved me out, and I landed here. After some searching and a little bit of luck -" he holds up a playing card that's made from chromium "- I stumbled onto this." His smile doesn't waver, but his eyes flick to a small rectangular shape on his sleeve.

**Phoenix:** "You'll be waiting a while for Tesh, the current leader of the Surgefinders faction of the Knights. She's currently being held captive by a new group calling themselves the New Inquisition. Now if you want to join the Vindicators, you will need to prove yourself worthy of us and show that you can add value to our group. We don't like dead weights that can hold us back. Oh, and the two factions don't always see eye to eye, just so you know. It's really two separate groups entirely now," Phoenix informs him.

**Tesh:** Mahshi groans. "So she went off and got herself captured, then? Nice. We should probably go try to find her, you know."

**Nohadon:** "So...what you are saying is that there are two factions? Neat! And if I brought back this Tesh, I could join up? The New Inquisition sounds an awful lot like the Steel Inquisitors - what's the difference between the two?" He draws a card, and everyone in the room feels more eager to talk to the man, forgetting about that card hidden up his sleeve.

**Sami:** Sam raised her eyebrow. _We_ should? Oh wait, Phoenix had offered _their_ services. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Sometimes Phoenix could be a little _too_ presuming. As for this guy, who was he to just walk in and announce himself as a new member? And who said that the Vindicators were up for recruiting? Oh wait, Phoenix had. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes again.

**Tesh:** "You? We don't even know you! I'm not letting you go and rescue my sister alone. And you clearly haven't been to Scadrial for _years,_ while I was there just a few weeks ago!"

**Nohadon:** "Oh my! I forgot to introduce myself! How silly! I'm Astiel, and I don't have many friends...but a group would be nice!" Astiel's smile faltered for a moment. "I see I am not welcome here - too bad! I'll just have to follow you around! So where would Tesh be?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sensed the zinc being pressed onto him from the newcomer. "You know, trying to manipulate us won't get you far. Many of us in this room know how to sense when Investiture is being used, and also know when someone is intending to use it against us. Not that it would work. Most of us hold an entire planet's worth of Investiture ourselves, so we cannot be Soothed or Rioted easily. But, either way…"

Phoenix pulls out a spare bag and opens it, then, burning iron, Lurches all the metal from the newcomer's person. Many cards which look like playing cards fly into the bag. "Don't ever try that again. And it looks like you'll have to wait for Tesh. You won't have _my_ support, at least, for joining the Vindicators."

**Fire:** Rathil shook his head. Another person from Scadrial who had left hundreds of years ago like he had. A few hours ago, it might have blown his mind. In all that had happened so far today, though, he decided to just go with it. He was pretty sure nothing would surprise him now.

Now this Astiel would have to go through the same revelation he did. Hopefully it wouldn't be as hard-hitting on him. Rathil didn't want anyone else feeling his pain. The exact form of pain he'd known all his life was his and his alone. Sure, he sometimes wanted to hurt others, to even kill them, but...the pain he could put them through would never be the same as what he felt. He refused to let people be hurt emotionally the way he was. Physical harm would be enough for them, and that was exactly what he planned on putting the Inquisition through.

But first things first. To Astiel he said, "Well, welcome to the Knights, where lots of us are new and we're all pretty bloody messed up. Get yourself ready for a long and difficult road. We're gonna need all the help we can get. Can you fight very well?"

**Tesh:** "Please, don't follow us around," Mahshi says, exasperated. "We don't have time for you right now, so please leave us alone." He'd have to go find Tesh. None of the others seemed even remotely concerned about his sister. Who knew what was happening to her? Mahshi pushes the concern to the side. She was a storming Radiant, out of the stories themselves, and she had been in some tight squeezes before. She'd gotten herself, along with Mahshi and Sazin, out of those without losing any of them...except for that last time. Mahshi inwardly sighs. A sigh of sadness. Of memory. Of family lost. As he stands there, on the side of a crowded room, he's swept away into memory.

"Come on!" Tesh shouted from ahead. "I've found something!"

"Tesh! We've been gone for days now! We should head back!" Sazin shouted back from Mahshi's side. Just as she had been since they had left.

"I agree with Sazin," he called.

"Oh, come on! Just a little longer!" Tesh's head popped around the corner. "There's another portal thing!"

"Fine! Ten minutes!"

"Come on! It's right up here!" Tesh grabbed his hand, and he grabbed Sazin's, and the young Tesh pulled the two of them forward and into a cavern with a glowing pool in the center. She jumped in, pulling Mahshi and Sazin with her.

They emerged in an identical cavern, except this one didn't seem to be made of smoke. "Come on, come on, come on!" Tesh said, growing extremely excited. She pulled the other two along as she ran down a passage, seemingly at random.

"Tesh! We don't even know where we're going!" Mahshi shouted after her.

She ignored him. They burst through an opening in a rock, and ran right into a figure standing by the entrance. He turned, and the light of a full moon glinted off the spikes that had replaced the man's eyes.

The man quickly picked up Sazin and slammed her into the rock. A sharp crack pierced the air, and Sazin screamed, then fell silent.

Tesh screamed too and rushed to their sister, scooped up the body, and fell into the hole. Her sobs echoed down the tunnel, then a thump as Sazin's body fell from her arms. It was just a deadweight.

Mahshi stared at the monster. A wicked grin crossed its face, and Mahshi ran, ran as his life depended on it. The creature quietly entered the hole, grabbed the body of the young girl, and threw it into a river.

She had been barely old enough to cover her safehand.

Mahshi ran towards the welcoming lights of a town. He ran the whole way there, more than three miles, never stopping, never looking back. When he got there, he collapsed in a heap on the ground in some dirty alleyway. Just like where he had been just a few months before.

But now he was alone. Tesh had left him. His sister. His best friend. And she had taken Sazin with her.

Just not in the same way.

Mahshi blinks, looking around the room.

He could easily blame Tesh for leaving him on Scadrial and for the death of Sazin. It was her fault. She had been the one able to worldhop. The one who had left him on Scadrial and led them there in the first place...causing Sazin's death. And yet, he doesn't blame her.

**Nohadon:** "Me, follow you? Why not? I intend to find this Tesh, so why not team up? If he is on Sel, Taldain, or Threnody, we can go there instantly if I draw the right card! What's it going to be? We can take the _long_ way back to Scadrial, but getting to a perpendicularity is gonna be pretty hard," Astiel points out.

**Phoenix:** "You mean one of these cards?" Phoenix holds up to his bag with Astiel's cards. "Give me a reason why you deserve to have these back after your antics."

**Tesh:** "One: Tesh is my twin _sister._ _She _is a she. Two: we do have a way of instantaneous travel." He glances at Phoenix. "And three: why do you care?"

**Nohadon:** "You took my cards! Whatever will I do? What if I said the magic words?" He swivels to the other man. "One - my bad, two - let's do that, then, and three - I'm lonely, and I want to help! Also, I'm _really_ bored."

**Tesh:** "I...fine. Fine!" Mahshi tosses his hands into the air, swings his pack over his shoulder, and walks to the door. "Might as well! Would you mind, Phoenix?" he asks, rather sheepishly.

**Sami:** "So...just like that? No plan, no preparation, just piggyback to Scadrial and hope we'll just bump into Tesh at a random bar there?" Sam lifted an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh wait, my bad. Why would Tesh be in a storming bar? Better check down all the alleyways. Y'know, just _sense_ something, yeah? I sense an _abnormal amount _of Investiture halfway across the planet! Oh, hang on, it's just a bunch of Allomancers having a picnic. You know, maybe it's a good idea to maybe get some storming intel first before dragging us halfway across the cosmere."

**Nohadon:** Astiel sniffs and spreads his hands before him. "Well, when you put it that way, that's just hurtful. I just want to check my home planet out again, and maybe look for some leads while I'm there, so, uh...anyone wants to join me?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix walks upstairs with all the provisions he gathered and entered the room, having overheard the previous few conversations. He'd found Tarenwel hiding in a _closet_, of all places, on his way back up, so the lawman came in behind him. "Of course there's a plan, but whether it involves taking _you_ along," Phoenix glances at Astiel, "is more than up for question. I'll take you to the Shardpool on our way out, how about that? At least that would spare Roshar of you! Now, if you want to go, gather around."

Phoenix Elsecalls the entire group to the Shardpool in the Horneater Peaks. He tells them, "This is where we part. We are venturing to my lab, the location of which remains a secret since I don't trust any of you enough." Phoenix looks at Rathil. "Now, _you_ have impressed me enough to at least let you tag along with us a while more. Know that this is no invitation, however, and we may choose to leave you behind at any point."

Phoenix, Cole, Sam and Rathil Elsecall to the southeast edge of the Frostlands, and Phoenix directs them to stand at the edge of the ocean. Afterwards, Phoenix Elsecalls them into Shadesmar, and they take a step out of the shallow pool of beads onto dry land. "And this way lies the Expanse of the Vapors. We'd best get moving."

**Fire:** Rathil dreamed of death. The death of others. The deaths of those he hated. They were good deaths, delightful to behold. Especially since he was the one killing them.

In the dream, he was armored in invincible Shardplate, wielding obsidian swords the size of Shardblades that could cut through anything, but not like a Shardblade did - they cut living flesh, sending out sprays of blood with every swing. He was surrounded by multitudes of Inquisitors, koloss, and men in gray Shardplate. Dozens of them, multiplied time and time again so he could kill them over and over again.

Rathil felt a surge of satisfactory rage as he charged through the crowd, swinging his swords and chopping down his enemies repeatedly. Bones crunched, blood sprayed, men screamed and died. His swords cut through them all, turning his enemies into bloody masses of mangled flesh. Those hateful koloss, dying by the hundreds. The despicable Inquisitors, dying by the dozens. The occasional man in Shardplate, dying one after another.

Rathil was death. He was destruction. He was Ruin. He was bringing death to all those who had wronged him, purging the cosmere of their rotten stain. And he reveled in it.

He continued cutting and killing until he was surrounded by mounds and mounds of mangled corpses. One more man in Shardplate lay breathing on the ground. Rathil ran to him and stomped on his faceplate. It shattered to reveal the face of the Blackthorn underneath. All the other men in Plate were sure to wear the same face. With a grin, he stomped on the Blackthorn's face again, right through to the ground.

Rathil looked up, closing his eyes sighing in satisfaction. They were all dead. He'd brought vengeance to the ones who had killed his families. But he still didn't feel satisfied. He wanted to continue the work of death. Everything he'd done wasn't enough. Would it ever be?

He heard crying from below him. He opened his eyes and looked down, then staggered back in shock. The bodies on the ground, the hundreds he had slaughtered - they weren't koloss, Inquisitors, or copies of Dalinar Kholin. Not anymore. Now they were...his family. His three little siblings, his older sister, his father, and his noblewoman mother. Those dear four Smoker Mistings who had protected him and been there for him all his years as a crime boss in Luthadel. The many close members of his thieving crew in Alethkar. The people he'd known and loved in all his years of life. All of them, parents, siblings, friends, lovers, crew members...all dead. Multitudes of them, multiplied again and again and again. They littered the ground, lying in the gore he had turned them into.

And they weren't dead. They were all looking up at him, crying, begging him for release from the pain, begging for retribution for him killing them, begging for him to die and join them so they wouldn't be alone. They were everywhere, their mangled bodies that _he _had slain rising up and reaching to him, crying.

He'd heard those voices before. They were the ones he heard every night, now magnified tenfold. As he looked down again, he saw that his armor and weapons were gone. He was standing defenseless in a field of death, the corpses of those he loved crying to him, reaching to him, crawling toward him…

Latching on to him. They were grabbing him, pulling him down to join them in their death, their cries getting louder and louder and louder and louder until all his other senses disappeared and he drowned in their bodies, only able to hear their screams, dying with them. Why hadn't he done that already? The screams were begging, begging, begging him to join them in death…

Begging...crying...begging...crying…

Rathil woke up screaming, rising upright in his bed. Again with that storming dream! He rolled out of bed without thinking, pulled out his knife, and leapt to his feet, spinning around. "No, no! Leave me alone! I'm not dead yet! Go away!"

**Sami:** Sam jerked awake to a muffled thud, sweat beading on her forehead. The voice from her dream followed her, haunting her, yelling. _"No! No! Leave me alone! I'm not dead yet! Go away!"_ She frowned, recognizing the hoarse, panicked voice as Rathil's. _Not Vashiel's_. Getting up, she picked up her weapons belt and headed to the kitchen.

**Fire:** Rathil stopped flailing about, realizing what he was doing, and looked around warily. Had he woken anyone else up? He hoped not. That would be embarrassing. But that dream...that was why he was afraid to go to sleep. He always dreamed of death, and he hated it. He hated it, but a part of him delighted in it, and he hated that he loved it. Too much death...so many people dead because of him…

Rathil sat back down in bed, tucking the dagger under his blanket. He leaned forward, putting his face in his hands. _What have I gotten myself into now? _

All this time later, he'd come with the rest of them through the Cognitive Realm across the glassy beads of Shadesmar to the misty plains of what he supposed to be Scadrial. He'd been excited, nervous, and terrified to return all at once. And then Phoenix had brought him to some other continent he didn't care about. Three hundred years ago, he would have loved to have found his way there, adventuring out beyond the Final Empire's borders. But now, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his home continent where the Final Empire had been. _That _was his home. _That _was where he was looking forward to going. This place of masked people and medallions...it might as well have been another planet to him.

But he would go back to Scadrial soon. The Scadrial he knew. He could hardly wait for it, but he knew he'd have to wait a few more days. And he hated that. Because that meant he would have to sleep while waiting - and he _hated_ sleeping. That dream was a lot worse than ones he'd had before. Much more vivid. So satisfying and yet so horrifying. He would try to tell himself that he wasn't really responsible for the deaths of everyone he cared about, but that was just a lie. It didn't make things feel any better.

Especially since he actually _had _killed someone he'd cared about.

But that was years ago. He needed to try and forget it. Only the dreams would be a reminder of the deaths, so he would forget the dreams, right? _No_. No, there were some things that could just never be forgotten. To try and forget the deaths of those he had loved would just be a disgrace to their memory. He had to live with the pain of remembering them. Even if it meant living with those dreams, the screaming, the begging and crying…

Suddenly, Rathil found himself starting to cry. Just a little bit. _Idiot man_. He couldn't let others see the pain; it was just embarrassing.

**Phoenix:** Coming back to his lab on Scadrial brought back many memories. Memories that seemed like a lifetime ago. He had changed so much since he had last worked here...and so had his lab. There were cobwebs everywhere, there were doors that seemed ready to fall off of their hinges, but at least it was safe from prying eyes - especially from Investiture-seeking means. The technology he had set up to shield the perimeter was still working well. Physically, no one was likely to find the base, as it was deep underground.

But...stepping foot in here again brought back memories Phoenix wasn't entirely comfortable reliving. He had done things in the name of science that would be considered moral and ethical atrocities in most societies. He had learned much...but at what cost? Granted, he had taken extra care to ensure that most of those Mistings and Ferrings he experimented on were sick or dying anyway. Yet, he still felt incredibly guilty about their deaths. He had kept telling himself that the cause was worth it, that the science and progress were worth it. But was that true? Could the things he learned truly help in the war waging in the cosmere?

After Ruin's downfall, Phoenix had also taken to experimentation with Hemalurgy, with the perceived danger of using the art having passed. It had certainly helped his research along quite a bit, but after a while had started making him too eager to shed blood, so at that point he had stopped. The Hemalurgy lab and adjoining cells were still downstairs three floors below them, but he was certain those areas would never see the light of day again.

Just a few weeks past, though, Phoenix had been all too eager to use the art of Hemalurgy when the opportunity presented itself. But the man would have died anyway. Was he truly capable of traveling down that dark path again? He had finally reached a moral standing he was comfortable with, and now lived by a code. His personal honor had apparently attracted his spren, Preston. He wondered what Preston thought of his recent act in spiking a man for his own gain. Perhaps the spren was silent because he had no ill will toward Phoenix?

_I know what you are thinking,_ Preston said in his mind. _I can feel the darkness and Spiritual disharmony here_. _It is reminiscent of a man who once was walking towards Ruin, but is no more. You live by a code now, of Ideals. _

_I do wish to live by Ideals, _Phoenix thought to his spren. _Because if I don't, how am I any better than those we fight against? Our enemies sow deception to reap chaos and destruction. We have to use wisdom and reasoning to utilize the best strategy to counteract their plans. Sacrificing lives for anything less than the destruction of our enemies is unacceptable. _

Phoenix removed the last of his probes from the Inquisitor's body. _So much of Ruin's influence is present here_, he thought. But how? Ruin was long gone. Could Ruin have left a Splinter behind that was separate from the main Shard, which had been taken up by Harmony after Ati's death? If so, this new Inquisition was much more dangerous than he'd thought. Unfortunately, no clues were left that could point them to the New Inquisition's headquarters. "Well, it's done. There is a ton of influence from Ruin, which is surprising. I think we might be dealing with a Splinter of Ruin not taken up by Harmony when he Ascended. The Intent here is just too strong."

**Fire:** Detrare leaned back, feeling an abnormal yet overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Something had finally gone right, just the way he'd wanted it to.

He had finally finished knitting the tapestry he'd been working on for the past couple years. He looked down at the knitting needles in his hands, pondering them. These simple sewing utensils had gone through the chests of two innocent men. They had seized part of their spiritwebs, becoming Invested as Hemalurgic spikes. But they'd been exposed long enough that they had lost most of their charge, so they wouldn't really provide someone with much power at all. But they were still Invested enough that if he stabbed them into someone else, he would be able to speak into their minds with the power of the gemstone.

The gemstone. Detrare set aside the needles, looked fondly at the finally completed tapestry hanging on the wall, then walked back over to his desk, pulling out the large wooden box. He looked inside it and saw the precious orb, glowing bright with its garish red-violet light. So much pure Investiture contained inside it...and at the very center, if he looked very closely, was that writhing, twisting, raging, tiny mass of black mist. Sweet, sweet Ruin.

He touched the gem, reaching out to all the people he had spiked and Connected himself to. And he sensed that Sanrin had finally arrived, judging by how close he was. Detrare smiled. Soon, now. The leader of the New Inquisition would meet with the leader of the Knights of the Cosmere...as the latter was bound in chains and bowed before the former. He was going to have fun dealing with this Teshani Kholin. Especially after all the information he had found on her and her fellow and rival Knights, thanks to Eheron and the archivists.

He would need to prepare for this meeting. One needed to give proper introductions before tearing down a rival organization at its very base. And soon he would need to present the tapestry. Detrare felt a rush of anticipation at the thought of that. He would be presenting it as he would give his announcement to all his gathered children and minions. The announcement that the Fulfillment was finally to begin.

Which reminded him...Detrare opened another drawer in his desk and pulled out another object waiting within. A mask made of aluminum. One he had modeled after a piece of art he had seen at his time in Silverlight. It was different from the aluminum mask he had given to Mask. That one was meant to be more of a symbol. A symbol of Death. This one depicted a face, chiseled and firm-set, with a perfect jawline, furrowed brow, noble nose, high cheekbones, narrowed eye holes, and a short flowing beard that spread in every direction beneath the mask, all surrounded by a mane of hair that circled the mask like the rays of a sun.

He obviously had no way of knowing the claims for sure, but legend had spoken of this proud and mighty face. Adonalsium. It was said to be the face of Adonalsium himself, according to those who had believed him to be a living person rather than a simple sentient force. Detrare held in his hands a depiction of the face of God. The God he believed in, whose Shards he followed the Intents of. He itched to put it on, but restrained himself. Not yet. He would wait for the announcement ceremony. And that would come after his meeting with Teshani.

**SD:** Benjamin walked through the streets of T'Telir, his brightly colored cloak rustling at his brisk pace. _Harthan...would he have worn this? Is this who I am? Yes - Harthan is gone now. This is who I am, a traveler of worlds, a collector of power. _

The garish colors of the city were astonishing to some, especially at first, but Ben had come to appreciate the city after having made repeat visits. This planet, Nalthis as it was called, was very unique in its form of Investiture. Each person was Endowed with BioChroma or a 'Breath'. He had been collecting these Breaths and he was nearly to what the locals called the Fifth Heightening, which would grant the gift of agelessness. Ben desired this, not simply because of a thirst for immortality, but as a means to collect more knowledge. To protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Oh, how far he had come from the simple soldier on Roshar; fate had taken him away to a planet called Scadrial. He had encountered other people, who were known as worldhoppers, and after recovering from his initial shock, begun learning a great deal about the mysteries of the cosmere. So far away was that old life.

Ben was approaching one of his safehouses, hoping to pick up some supplies before meeting a contact of his. His spren Swing flitted around on his right. He had been told that his spren shouldn't be able to travel to different worlds so easily, but his memory was fuzzy when it came to that.

"So, who is this informant again?" Swing asked him.

"A man who goes by the name Girth," Ben responded. "He claims to have information that would interest a traveler of my type, whatever that means."

"Could he know that you're not from this world?"

Ben pauses. "I don't see how he could, but I suppose we should be careful."

Arriving at the safehouse, he steps inside to the empty room. Empty, as it should be. He quickly looks around for any signs of disturbance; all looks to be in order, so he goes to the corner and lifts the hidden trap door, carefully cut as to not be noticed, from the floor itself, which has no variation of color from the rest. Ben steps down into his hidden supply room. He restocks his pack with food and camping supplies - you never know when you may need to rush off - and grabs a few small daggers to tuck into his boots and belt.

Satisfied, he leaves, regaining his brisk pace and heading out for the restaurant to meet his contact.

Girth certainly lives up to his name, his wide belly taking up all the room on the opposite side of the table. He greedily eats his meal of oysters, or whatever slimy sea creatures they are.

"So tell me," Ben says, "why do you think I will be so interested in what you have to say?"

"Well you see, good sir," Girth says pleasantly, "I know your little secret! Oh, don't look so innocent," the big man adds at Ben's feigned look of confusion. He lowers his voice and grins slyly. "I know you're not from this world; my spren has been following you for quite some time."

Ben gets over his brief moment of shock. "So, a fellow Rosharan? That's nice, but if you don't really have anything to tell me, then I shall be going now, as I have already paid for your food." He moves as if to get up and leave.

"Now hold on!" Girth says, still in his smooth voice. "I know all about you, how you wish to protect and desire to learn, to teach, to defend."

Ben halts and turns back to face the man, eyes filled with scrutiny. "You've done your research well. That's very nice and all, but please cut to the chase. I've already wasted enough time here."

Girth finally drops his facade. "Fine, then, sir. I see you have little patience. Let me put it this way - there is a group of which I have heard rumors. They claim to be protectors of the cosmere. Knights even. Is that not the same cause as yours?"

Ben processes this information. "And how could I trust you, someone I barely know, to tell me the truth? Why should I care about what you say?"

"You _can't_ know," Girth says, his smile returning. "Only by going yourself to Roshar, where this group is based, can you know for sure. Spiked your interest, haven't I?"

Ben scowls at the fool of a man. "That was a very interesting story; consider my payment for your dinner as my charitable act of the week. Thank you for wasting my time." He gets up and storms from the restaurant. What a fool. What can this man know of the cosmere? But then again...why tell him this? _Storm it!_ Ben thinks. _He's getting to me, just like he wanted to. _With that, he again falls into his brisk gait as he walks the streets of T'Telir.

**Ink:** Quell was alone. Not in the sense that no one was around him - in Hallendren, that was hard to find - but in the sense that no one else seemed to be able to understand his urgency. This was his adopted planet, after all. It gave him chills to think about Inquisitors and mists again. He didn't want to have to deal with them, but for the sake of those he knew on Scadrial, he would go back and face down this new threat.

There didn't seem to be anyone who could transport him back, but maybe if he could find a perpendicularity he could make it, assuming he could find his way through the Cognitive Realm. His time on Nalthis had helped him appreciate their form of Investiture.

_What if,_ he thought, _I could find a way to make these Breaths work for my Allomancy? By Austre, that would be amazing._ Metal, after all, wasn't cheap - by the Survivor, sometimes the price was outrageous. But that perpendicularity, where could it be? The God Court was likely, but how to get in? He would find a way or storming die trying.

**Mist:** Fourth of the Dawn sat, illuminated by flickering firelight. The sky, awash with sparkling gems, winked down at him, watching. They always watched. They _knew_.

Thene and Rwendeh watched him, eyes piercing his soul, unblinkingly following his every movement. He took two crablike cremlings, the plumpest he could find, and held them in front of the Aviar. They knew, but they forgave him. So, he hoped, did the stars.

Thene, a large Aviar who shielded his mind from predators back on Talrji, was a large, strongly built red bird with sleek, beautiful feathers, spiraling in patterns of color variations across his wings and back. He was mesmerizing to behold, an Aviar that truly captured the power and majesty of the wilds. Dawn proffered the cremling, and the bird darted his head forward, snatching it up gratefully. Dawn smiled, which happened so rarely these days.

Rwendeh, a small kingfisher gifted by Patji, swooped in and snapped the other cremling from his hand. She darted off to perch on a nearby shalebark outcropping.

He was happy here, in the wilds of Jah Keved, ignoring the world. He munched on whitespine jerky and wild tallew, enjoying his solitude. He could survey the beauty of the countryside from the side of the Horneater Peak. Plants, animals, the beauty of nature. But also, the scars of man. Villages and roads scoured the region, tearing up nature for speed and practicality. It frustrated him, how the Rosharans couldn't live with nature instead of against it. To think that Cultivation herself lived here, blasphemed by man.

The frustration triggered something within him. Memories. He stifled them, but could not hide glimpses of his failure.

_Hugging his mother, saying goodbye. He'd be back with his father and brother in two years. They were in the wrong place. This wasn't Scadrial. Panic. Fear. Flashes of running, hiding. Screaming until his throat was raw. A harsh, golden light. A face, looming over him, surrounded by glowing red eyes. The face had no eyes, only spikes. The terrible, horrible hatred bathing the landscape. Escaping._

_Cowardice. Failure. Loss._

He shook himself, exiting the stupor. Rwendeh let out a wavering note. At least he had them. At least he wasn't truly alone.

**Meeker:** Ryker stepped between the guards into the domed Oathgate chamber. "Sir, this is an unauthorized place for civilians," one said.

Ryker held his daughter, Skylar, with one arm. He sighed as he extended his hand. Nervously the guards lowered their spears, pointing the weapons at his chest. A Shardblade sprang into existence, and Ryker caught it by the hilt. "Do I look like a civilian to you?" he questioned.

"N-no, Brightlord Radiant," the guard's companion replied, color draining from his face.

"Let me through," Ryker snapped through gritted teeth. They did.

He stepped up to the pedestal. Breathing in, he drew upon the rest of his Stormlight and inserted his Shardblade into the slot. The room glowed and then all went dark. Light shone in upon them a second later; this new room was different. As Ryker looked around, he noticed that he'd accidentally transported the guards with him.

He dismissed his Blade. "Sorry," he told them as he exited the dome. He wandered through groups of people, looking for someone important. Grabbing someone in a clean uniform with more than enough knots, he asked urgently, "Where can I speak with a Radiant? It's urgent!"

**Ink:** I wasn't without hope looking for any way back home. I had a couple of friends around the city; a few were Seekers. I had to hope they were listening. I let off two long Allomantic pulses, then one short and one long. Now, if any were listening, they would find me. A few moments later, a shorter, energetic young man ran up.

"How in the mists did you get here so fast, Zen?" This name was, in fact, a code name, as we didn't take unnecessary risks. Better yet, his name was practically the opposite; Zen was extremely hyperactive and youthful.

"I was nearby when I sensed your call. What do you need?"

"A way off this storming planet, I need to go back to Scadrial."

Zen thought for a moment. "There's a guy I've heard of with good connections and information, not sure if he'll be helpful, but it's worth a shot. Rumor is, he knows everything about this world."

"Where can I find him?" I ask.

"In restaurants around the city, he goes by Girth."

I grab my notebook, check that my pistols are hidden in my jacket, and head out, leaving a piece of ettmetal with a stored brass charge behind to make investigators less suspicious.

**Tesh:** _Darkness. _It's all I see in every direction. And a faint, pulsing pain, coming from my head. I've been knocked out. Yay. I look around and can't see anything. I'm blind! I can't see! Storms, storms, _storms! _I let out a ragged stream of curses. My voice is hoarse, and it hurts to speak. How long have I been out? Days, at least. Then I remember my eyes are closed. I let out a weak, shaky little laugh. I try again...and still can't open them. My eyelids apparently crusted over, sealing them shut. Fun. I reach up to begin cleaning them, but my arm is numb and I can't feel it. I can't move it or my other arm, or my legs. No. No no no no no! Can't see. Can't walk. Can't even sit up. Can barely talk.

I start yelling, managing to finally crack open an eye. I stop and get a good look at the room I'm in. A small mattress that I'm laying on, with a small hard pillow and a single blanket that's covering me. I'm still wearing my Roughs clothing. Good, I guess. A man sits on a chair by the doorway, holding a pistol. Already back on Scadrial, then. He's staring at me out of the corner of his eye with a amused look on his face. I guess I've made a friend.

All I want is Stormlight, but there's none on Scadrial. It runs out before it even leaves the Cognitive Realm half the time. I'm stuck.

**Mist:** Dawn sat, shivering in the cold mountain air. He huddled close to his small fire, dancing shadows playing across his face, twirling and spinning. He watched a solitary flamespren zip through the tongues of fire, carefree and joyous. He longed for the days when he had been so carefree. Thene sat perched on his shoulder, affectionately nibbling his ear, and Rwendeh flapped around him, nipping his tail feathers playfully. The wild could be a truly happy place, away from the rage of mankind. He only wished that he too could feel that way.

A cold breeze ruffled his hair, which was choppy and of middling length, Dawn having recently cut it off with his hunting knife. He resisted relying on people or villages for anything, preferring to live on his own in nature, hunting and trapping his own food. He knew he couldn't hide forever, that he couldn't push down the betrayal he had enacted by hiding from the world.

Dawn didn't care.

A single, unadorned pewter earring rested in Dawn's hand. Rwendeh landed and tried to eat it, but found it too heavy to pick up. Dawn smiled as the bird fluttered off and hid behind a large rockbud, discouraged and ashamed. He slipped the earring into his right ear and sat down, legs crossed. He didn't pray, but rather meditated. Dawn's father had been Pathian, and Dawn had followed in his footsteps, to his mother's consternation.

Dawn cleared his mind. He did not worship Harmony, simply...respected him. Harmony never spoke back, but Dawn got the feeling that he was listening, at least some of the time. Dawn always strove to do more good than harm, to give more than he took, but only to nature. He owed nothing to man, as he took none from them. Normally, Dawn would simply sit for the next fifteen minutes, respectful and peaceful, but today he had a dilemma. For the past week, Dawn had climbed the Horneater Peaks slowly, hesitantly. At the top, he knew he would find the Shardpool. The place where he had emerged from his nightmare.

After a year of wandering Roshar, he was back. He knew he should return to First of the Sun, tell his family what had happened. He wasn't strong enough to do that. He _couldn't_ do that. He considered going to Scadrial, as he had originally intended, before - before…he couldn't. He didn't even know the way. Dawn also knew, deep inside him, that he hiding would no longer serve him. He knew even if he didn't deserve other people, didn't want other people, didn't need other people, his birds did. They were restless, and lonely.

His mind open to Harmony, he mentally asked, _What should I do? How can I return to home, or even simply to man? _There was no reply. But that was okay. He sat in silence, even his Aviar quiet. Minutes passed. Dawn got up, smothered the fire, and gathered his meager belongings. Then he started up the peak of the mountain.

**Meeker:** Ryker is directed to an upper room. He stands outside the large doors, pacing back and forth. Soon the doors open, and he pushes his way through the exiting crowd of people. Upon entering he sees an older man, with hairs graying and wizened eyes. "How can I help you?" he asks.

"I need a way to get to Shadesmar."

"Don't you know about the pool on the Horneater Peaks?"

"I was hoping to be transported there."

"Those with that ability have more important business to attend to. Thank you and good day." The man motions to the open door. "You may requisition Stormlight on your way out."

Grumbling under his breath, Ryker takes the journey back to the Oathgate, only stopping to take three bags of broams with him for his journey. He takes the Oathgate to Kholinar, where he Lashes himself northwest towards the Peaks. The trip drains him of two full bags of emeralds. Nearing the end of his journey he ends his Lashings, crashing to the ground next to a surprised-looking man with a handful of playing cards.

"Eh, could use more practice with my landings," he says aloud as he brushes himself and Skylar off.

**Mist:** Dawn stared at the pool, its deep blue surface reflecting the starlight. He had climbed through the night, and it was nearly morning. Starspren danced among the stars high above, which cast the world in a sparkling sheen that contrasted with Mishim's green glow.

Rwendeh and Thene seemed uneasy, chittering nervously on his shoulders. He agreed; something was off about the pool. It seemed so...alive. Twice before had he seen such a pool. First, a small pool on First of the Sun, and second, this very pool he stood by. Dawn reached down and touched the water, breaking the smooth, glasslike surface.

Two conflicting memories hit him like tidal waves.

_Hugging his mother, he bade his family goodbye._

"_I'll be back with Fourth of the Dawn and Second of the Midday in two years, don't worry about us," his father said. This trip had been his father's goal for years. When his sons were old enough, father wanted to take his sons to Scadrial to learn about the cosmere and their Terris heritage. He had regaled them with stories of Scadrial, Silverlight, and the cosmere as children, against his wife's wishes. _

_When the time came, only Dawn and Midday agreed to the voyage. Father was hurt, but determined to continue._

_Tapping his metalminds, using years' worth of speed. Running as he had never run before, dashing across the obsidian ground in a panic-stricken frenzy of feet. His Aviar, Rwendeh, soared in front of him, along with his father's, Thene. _

_Fear struck Dawn to his core, yet he kept moving. Almost there. Flashes of light, harsh, terrible, and golden, mixed with blood red. He risked a glance backwards._

_Taking a deep breath and clutching Rwendeh for support, Dawn dove into the pool. He was leaving his home, his family, his life behind. At least he had his Aviar, his brightest light._

_Red-eyed spren tailed him, unable to keep pace. A single cloaked figure stood, staring at two bodies and a dead bird. Staring with metal spikes. The figure gave no pursuit. _

_Dawn passed through an invisible border, and something held back the spren. He was free. He kept running until his metalminds were empty, which wasn't very long, and found himself at the edge of a pool. Without thinking, he threw himself in. Instead of drowning, he found himself in a new place. In the Physical Realm._

_Dawn was free. Dawn was safe._

_Dawn was a failure. A betrayer._

_Dawn was a murderer._

The waves of memory subsided, and Dawn found himself once again by the pool, one hand touching the rippling surface. Tears fell from his face, dropping into the pool and sending more ripples across its surface. Dawn cried for his family, his home, and the murders caused by his hand. Another tear struck the surface of the pool. Dawn wiped his face and curled up in a ball. He couldn't face this today. Rwendeh and Thene perched on his arm, held to his chest. Their heartbeats comforted him, reminding him of home. Of his father and brother. A single, salty tear traced his cheek.

Sleep's dark embrace took him.


	9. Detrare Doesn'tLike Protagonist Speeches

**Fire:** Time to meet with the young Teshani Kholin, so-called leader of the Knights of the Cosmere. Detrare walked down the stone hallway to a door made of spongy, tangible mist. This was an effect of having the fortress built out of both stone and mist. A few other individuals trailed behind him. First was a large, muscular man with a shaved head and a leering grin carrying a spike in one hand and a long machete in the other. Next was a spindly, fidgety young man with a long, thin spike piercing his ear as he skipped forward. Last was a stern, middle-aged woman leading along a strange young person who was completely colored a glowing pale blue. An honorspren. The one bonded to Teshani, in fact.

Detrare entered the mist-walled room, the others trailing behind him. The Radiant girl sat unconscious in the center of the room, chained heavily to a chair. He frowned at that. "Unchain her," he said to the fidgety boy.

The young man looked up at him questioningly. "But she's dangerous."

Detrare almost rolled his eyes. New member, this boy was. Hadn't yet found a true Devotion to the cause. "Unchain her," he repeated. "Let her understand that we don't need to put her in cords or chains for her to be completely in our power. Let her recognize her own _impotence_." He said that last word with a hiss. "And her limbs are useless anyway."

At a gesture from him, the bald, grinning man walked to one corner of the room while the lady and the honorspren prisoner stood in the other. They hadn't been able to get any information from the spren about the Knights. Probably because its personal sense of honor wouldn't allow it to betray its master. Detrare wouldn't have it any other way, though. He would much rather get the information from the Radiant herself. Honor was dead anyway, as was the real God who had come before him - which was why mankind was needed to carry on His mandate. But that couldn't be done when misguided people like these Knights got in the way.

As the spindly young man finished removing the chains, he gave Teshani a small slap to the face and poked her in the neck. Then he dragged the chains over by the large bald man and waited. Detrare stood a few feet in front of Tesh, waiting for her to wake up. No need to keep a distance, as she couldn't do any harm to him. He even knelt down and leaned in, getting ready to give her a warm greeting. If anything else unsettled her, at least he could try to ease her comfort and make her more...willing to speak, perhaps.

**Tesh:** Something smacks my cheek, then pokes me in the neck. I open my eyes. Several people stand in front of me, including Ani in her full-sized human form. "What..." The sound escapes my mouth before I can stop it. I try to stand up, and _fall off of the storming chair! _Right. Useless arms, useless legs. And probably no Stormlight. Absolutely wonderful.

"I take it -" I suddenly cough, realizing just how dry my mouth is. "****ation. I take it that I am on Scadrial," I cough again, "and am in the presence of the head of the New Inquisition?" Laying on the floor, I descend into a coughing fit. What a great way to present myself to those who are probably going to torture me for information, then kill me. Then it hits me. _This might be the end. _I am going to die.

No matter how much I pretend, I am no soldier. I am merely someone who can hold a spear or sword, and maybe save some lives. But it's never been me. I wouldn't be able to hold for long, even now. I thought what I'd been through was tough. It was nothing, _nothing, _compared to other pains...or grief. In this moment, I know. I'm nothing compared to the cosmere. I never have been. I never will be. I am going to kill those I love...again.

**Fire:** "Oh, there, there, young lady," Detrare said, reaching out to her and lifting her back into the chair. He tried smiling warmly at her, despite how much spite he felt toward her right now. "There's no need to worry. I am not going to kill you. I simply wish to...talk to you. You've become quite the person of interest to this organization, I'll give you that."

**Tesh:** "No matter what you do," I whisper, "no matter what mark you make on the cosmere, good or bad, someone _will_ come along and erase it. I promise that to you. In one week, or in five millennia, it will happen."

**Meeker:** Ryker sets down little Skylar, who hides behind his legs and cautiously peeks around his legs at the stranger. He unties a necklace from around his neck, slipping off one of his three remaining steel Feruchemical beads from the delicate strings, before retying the string back around his neck. Ryker brings his hand to his mouth, swallowing the bead whole. Suddenly a new power swells within him, one so rarely used. He picks up his daughter and burns the storage. "Good day to you," he says as he starts his ascent of the mountain.

Ryker Lashes himself a quarter to the sky, making it easier for him to run as well as increase his speed. Time seems to stop as he runs, dodging between the foliage. Soon he reaches the crest, where the peak descends into itself. Ryker leaps into the air, soaring a good fifteen yards before completely Lashing himself up. The momentum from the leap is enough to propel him to the nearest dock, where he lands roughly, startling some birds. Ryker looks over the shallow lake before Lashing himself upward again.

He Lashed himself slightly to propel him to the center of the lake. Looking down, he breathed in sharply, but not to drink in Stormlight. He Lashed himself downward several times, shooting into the lake and straight into the perpendicularity. He reoriented himself quickly with a set of Lashings and set himself on the ground. A woman stood next to him. Her eyes gave off Stormlight and her hair was braided into a crown. Her dress was completely black with tiny studded diamonds.

"I take it that you are Kayara?"

"I am she."

"Pleasure to finally meet you," Ryker grunted.

Another man emerged suddenly from the perpendicularity. Ryker's hand immediately went to his belt of vials, and the other brought out a fistful of coins from a semi-open pouch on his belt. "Who are you? Answer me or you'll end up full of holes!"

**Fire:** "Oh, child," Detrare chuckled. "You and I think alike, I see. Yes, every mark will eventually be erased. All that is will come to an end. That is simply the way of things. What we are doing is trying to encourage that process, or speed up its timetable, if you will. Everything must come to an end. All life and all matter, reduced once again to the Investiture from which this cosmere was created _must end_. Even the planets. Even the Shards themselves."

He looked her in the eyes, leaning in. "And yes, even this Inquisition. How can we fulfill the will of Ruin if we don't apply it to ourselves? Yes indeed, we will be destroyed, or as you would say, erased. We will meet our end by the hands of those we destroy, bringing them all down with us until nothing remains and all is chaos. Everyone will give into their Passions and eat each other alive until all have been destroyed. And all will burn in the flames of humanity's Passion and their drive to Ruin each other.

The problem, however, is that you Knights are interfering in such a way that this Inquisition is threatened by the possibility of not making a large enough mark before we are erased. You deplete our numbers, overthrow our fortresses, get in the way of our plans..." He clenched his fists, thinking on Mask, Fist, and many others. "...and kill those who are important to us. I want that over with.

This Inquisition is meant to drive ourselves forward in our cause, Devoting ourselves to the truest of endeavors until our dying breaths, when we are finally felled by a foe greater than us, whoever it may be. Instead, we have you: a ragtag bunch of broken people trying to do what they think is good to satisfy their consciences and blinding themselves to how much Ruin they themselves have caused and continue to cause, who can barely even stay allied with one another. Something as pathetic as that should not be endured. You don't deserve to leave a mark. No, you will be the mark and we are the ones who will erase it."

**Mist:** Dawn's eyes cracked open, and he glanced quickly back and forth, surveying for danger. The coast was clear, so he got up, wiping the sleep from his eyes and peeling a salty film of dried tears off his face. Rwendeh and Thene were already up, doing laps around the pool impatiently. Dawn held out his arm, and both birds landed, nuzzling his arm affectionately. He was glad to have such friends in his life.

Dawn walked to the edge of the pool, contemplating. A decision faced him, yet he didn't even know how to proceed. He was sure of one thing, however. He would not hide on Roshar any longer. He was done avoiding humans. Avoiding the world for fear of judgement. Hiding even from himself. He would not open up or accept his loss, only move forward. It was a step.

He mustered his courage, then leapt forward into the pool, and the memories hit. _Days of travel on obsidian ground, fearing every turn, cringing at every sound. An endless trek, until finally a fork was reached._

_We had turned the wrong way. This wasn't Scadrial. Father's memory was imperfect, but we trusted the Aviar and turned left before the sea of orbs. We skirted what Father called Roshar, seeing a perpendicularity in the distance revealed by Matrycj, Midday's Aviar, but also seeing another perpendicularity to our left. We went that way and entered another world._

_The landscape emanated a pure, powerful, unstoppable hatred. Odium. We were pulled into the Physical Realm by hulking red figures, and roughly thrown into the perpendicularity like so many sacks of pelt. We were on Braize._

_The figures were now red-eyed spren, and another, in a physical body wearing a black cape with metal armor. Spiked eyes. The Inquisitor laughed. Fear clutched our hearts. We had made a mistake. We would die, and never again see the light of day or feel the touch of our family. The spren flocked around us, pulling closer. Seeping into us._

_Father screamed._

Dawn fought through underwater tears. Swam down, clutching his birds to his chest. Fighting the pain. The darkness. The murder. Suddenly, he broke the surface. Back in the Cognitive Realm.

"Who are you? Answer me or you'll end up full of holes!" a voice called. A man and woman stood there. Dawn drew two daggers. Then he saw the child. Standing there was a little girl, no older than his sister Sixth of the Twilight. His heart melted. Dawn sheathed his knives and held up his hands, shooting the man a death stare that made nightmaws hesitate.

Then, slowly and deliberately, he opened his mouth and spoke. Not for the man, or even the girl. For his Aviar. For his family. "Fourth," he croaked, voice rusty from extreme disuse, "of the Dawn."

**Tesh:** "When are you going to kill me? Or torture me for information? Or let the latter lead to the former?" I growl. Ani looks at me, her face full of fear. If I die, so does her memory. But she'll find another Radiant to bond. "If I die here, I will rest in peace knowing the world will be saved in the future. And others will keep fighting to defeat the darkness."

I am young, very young, and inexperienced. Others will do more in a day than I could in a year. "And yes, this world will come to an end. All worlds will. But the light will not let the darkness retain its grasp on those worlds. And when this world does end, something new will be made. That is the cycle of the universe." The cosmere does not need me. The cycle will keep going without me. But I will help keep it safe. "If I die, few would weep. Many would shout with joy. Time would go on. So would life. I am not needed in the preservation of this universe, but I know some of its secrets; they will stay with me no matter what you do to me. Others can do more than I. If I go, it will be in peace. So kill me. Go on. I no longer fear death."

I realize I'm rambling in a rather formal style. I've had very little water or food for the last few days. and I have a headache from when I landed on the floor. Most of what just left my mouth didn't make sense, but the gist of it is true. If I die, the cosmere _will_ survive.

**Meeker:** "Fourth," the man croaked, "of the Dawn." The man shot him a glare.

Ryker stood his ground, meeting those eyes with confidence. He returned the coins to the pouch and slipped the vial back onto his belt. Skylar cautiously poked her head around his legs. Unexpectedly, she let go and ran to Fourth of the Dawn, hugging his legs. Ryker shot her a quizzical look and walked up to them.

"Fourth of the Dawn? Can I call you Four or Dawn?" Ryker asked. "Ah, where are my manners. I am Ryker Sinclair, of the Skybreakers; this is my spren, Kayara; and my daughter Skylar." He looked Dawn up and down. "We could be of use to one another, stranger - Shadesmar is a dangerous place." Ryker thrust out his hand. "What do you say?" When there was no reply, Ryker said, "Well, tag along if you wish."

He picked up his daughter and handed her to Kayara. He walked along to the edge, where the stony surface met the bead sea. Spotting a dock nearby, he walked to it, noticing that Fourth of the Dawn trailed behind them. He strolled to the edge of the pier. looking out at the horizon; there was a ship, and it was getting closer. "Looks like we have ourselves a ride," he said, pointing.

The other man nodded pointedly. Ryker sighed. Soon the ship was docked and the gangplank was put down. Ryker walked up, coming face to face with the captain. He looked very similar to a pirate, which made him hesitate. But nonetheless, Ryker spoke. "We need passage from this place. I can pay for the four of us, plus the bird things."

**Mist:** Fourth of the Dawn stared at this man, who called himself Ryker and went from threatening to welcoming in less time than it took an Aviar to shell a crab. He made a fair point; Shadesmar was indeed dangerous, as Dawn knew all too well. Dawn had no reason to follow him, held no goodwill nor allegiance to the man or his spren, but something about Ryker's words pulled at him.

An escape. Not having to choose, simply following the man. Being able to hide without solitude. Yes, his promises were intoxicating. Dawn did not outwardly react, only nodding when the ship appeared. This man was cocky, arrogant, and annoying. Rwendeh and Thene had no objections, so he didn't voice his dislike of the man.

Then Ryker had insulted his Aviar. _Bird things?_ Dawn growled, stepping toward Ryker menacingly and glaring at him with intense hatred. "Aviar," he spat, gravelly voice brimming with rage. Turning to the captain and drawing a knife, Dawn mimed slitting his throat, then glared at the man. The captain shrunk back, but let him aboard without comment.

Ryker sighed, apologizing for Dawn and ensuring the captain he would cause no trouble under Ryker's watch, then boarded with his girl and spren.

Dawn stood at the prow of the boat, silent, comforting his birds. They were fidgety and nervous after entering the Cognitive Realm. He agreed. Nothing good had ever happened to him here. Dawn set down his bag, pulling out a thin, almost invisible string and a simple device with a jawed trap, which would break the arm of anyone reaching for his pack, set it up over his bag so that it was concealed, then rested against the side of the ship with one eye cracked open, ignoring the other passengers.

He would get up when they got there. He did not want to talk. But Ryker strode toward him, likely laden with questions. Questions Dawn would rather avoid.

**Meeker:** Questions. Those were what brimmed in Ryker's mind. Skylar leaned over the railing, carefully being watched by Kayara. The ship was quite grand; he had successfully bought out two fine cabins, one for Dawn and one for his daughter and Kayara. It was all that the ship had. Ryker didn't need sleep, or so he lied to himself.

Questions that needed to be answered before he could trust Dawn. The man stood at the prow with his Avair. They were bird things, in Ryker's opinion, there was something off about them that didn't make them birds, and Ryker was determined to find out. He stopped behind the man. "Listen, Dawn. I need you to answer a few questions. They need to be answered truthfully." He waited for a response but got none, so he continued on.

"Where do you come from? What are your reasons for being here in Shadesmar? What Investiture do you have? I refuse to believe that you're just a normal traveler. My daughter seems to like you. You are the first that has ever happened to. She is a shy, timid girl, so you had better not have used emotional Allomancy on her or so help me Stormfather!" Ryker said. "Look, I just want to be able to trust you, and that starts with answering my questions. If we can't trust each other then we are more a problem to ourselves than the creatures out there. You might not like me, but I don't care; I need you to trust me."

**Mist:** Questions. The systematic murder of peace and thoughtfulness when poured onto one hoping against hope to be _left alone_. Dawn hated the questions people had always had for him. His family didn't ask questions. Nobody else had been that way. _Except Paileah…_Dawn shut off those memories. Memories of her, just like those of his family, were too painful to hold on to. He hadn't thought about her in months.

He wanted to ignore the man Ryker's questions, but he knew Ryker had a point. Dawn would answer them. Only what he needed to know. "I am from far away. I am here by mistake. I have my birds and bracers, but by Patji's Eye, I swear I did nothing to your girl." He rolled up his sleeves, revealing steel bracers as he spoke. The effort of talking for so long strained his vocal chords. He had not spoken so much since Paileah.

_You killed her...you killed your father...your brother...because of you, they are dead. _Dawn spun around, hiding his face, hiding the tears. He pointedly avoided the world, blocking out all noise and feeling. He didn't care that he was ignoring Ryker. He didn't care about anything except hiding.

Then he saw Rwendeh and Thene on the prow, and his heart softened. At least he had them. Another tear slid down his cheek. At least he had someone he could open up to. At least he had two more pieces of his heart.

**Fire:** Detrare let out a laugh. "My, my, aren't you a noble one! And so understanding of the truth!" He reached out and put his hand on her knee. "We think alike more than I had thought. You would have made such a fine member of our ranks, had I managed to recruit you. But you misunderstand me. I won't kill you. Not yet, at least. That would make things too...simple. In fact, I'm glad you wish for death. That makes this more fun."

He waved over at the muscular man, who grinned wider as he walked up to Tesh, twirling the steel spike in his fingers. "Meet my son, Saun. Now, unlike so many others who have died at the hands of people like _you _who I consider to be my children, he is actually my biological son. Would you kill him too if it meant fighting me? Don't think I don't know that you are the one who killed Mask." Detrare breathed in, trying to contain his temper as he gripped Tesh's knee tighter. "I know you Radiants. I understand the Windrunners. You want to protect others, don't you? You are willing to die if it means saving them. But what if others are suffering because of you? What do you do then?"

Detrare pointed at the honorspren, and Saun strode over to it, twirling the spike and flicking his machete. The young man still stood in the other corner, old woman holding the spren thrust it forward, and Saun put his knife under its chin, ready to stab upward and inward. "If you won't speak, it won't be you who is harmed," Detrare said, standing up and straightening.

"We will put your spren through the maximum threshold of physical pain in every way we can imagine until you tell us what we need to know. I have always wondered - how do you injure an idea? Now we can find out. I have also wondered if it is possible to kill a spren through conventional means while in the Cognitive Realm. We'll find out soon, won't we? Or will we? That can all be prevented if you tell me what I want to know."

He reached into a pocket of his robes and pulled out a sheaf of papers. "I want more information than I have already been given on the rest of the Knights of the Cosmere. To simply know their names and abilities is not enough. I need to know who they are from someone who knows them. Their histories, their connections, their friends, their families, their memories, their...trustworthiness. After all, as the saying goes: 'to defeat your enemy, know them first.' Tell me about them to make it easier for me to deal with them, or watch your spren suffer for your refusal to cooperate."

When Teshani gave no response, Detrare began flipping through the pages. Might as well make a show of what would happen next. "Let's see...information on highly Invested individuals across the cosmere. Yes, we have you, Teshani Kholin, the half-blooded Rosharan miracle child. Oh, and we have information on your family as well. How nice. Yes, we try to be quite thorough when understanding other worldhoppers."

He turned to another paper and frowned. "Now here is a mystery if I have ever seen one. I don't believe anyone really knows who this Hoid fellow is...I think there are as many people who know of him as there are names he goes by." He turned to the next page. "And what have we here? Elantrian worldhoppers? Yes, I'd say we have too many of those. Yes, here is Alonoe of the Ire, and Galladon of the Seventeenth Shard - ah! Here we are! Phoenix. One of the Knights of the Cosmere now, I believe. Yes, a Vindicator." He looked back up at Tesh. "Did you know he used to be a Hemalurgist? Quite an effective one. Indeed, he might as well have been a member of our own organization. I think he would be a good recruit if he wasn't so scientifically oriented."

Looking at the next page, he smiled. "Ah, yes. Scadrians. I see there are even a couple of atium Mistings. A shame that metal isn't still around. A few more years to wait for that, perhaps. Now, here we have Demoux, another member of the Seventeenth Shard. I'll really have to make sure to destroy them after I've finished off you Knights and the Ire. But who is this? Rathil? Another atium Misting associated with the rest of you Knights? He's done quite a lot of damage of his own. I wonder...would he be a foe or a possible asset?"

Looking back up at Tesh, he said, "You see, this is the point of this. I want to destroy you Knights, but I also want to find out which of you could be...converted instead. Which is why I come to these particular individuals under the title of Vindicator. First of all...by Adonalsium! How did we not know about Cole? Do you realize he is just about as powerful a Fullborn as the Lord Ruler himself was? And that's not including the two thousand or so Breaths that bring him to the Fifth Heightening and the fact that he is a Shardbearer!

Really, I am quite awed by him. He must be quite the father to his innocent, exposed little children. And from his history, it would seem he has a record of betraying everyone he knows, particularly the Knights of the Cosmere...hmm, yes. He is the one I am most interested in learning about from you. Just imagine all the Ruin he could cause if he just let go of his inhibitions...he would be a great ally to our cause. And I have no doubt a good amount of persuasion could make it so. _That's _why I want you to tell us the rest of what you know. There will be no need to destroy you Knights if I can make you join me. After all, everyone breaks after long enough. Even you will."

He nodded to the honorspren, indicating a reminder that they were going to torture it if Tesh didn't speak. "It's only a matter of time before you both suffer. After long enough, you all serve Ruin. Which leads me to one more person on our list. Samar...did you know that she is already a member of our ranks? Yes, we have spiked her and been influencing her across these years. In fact, she almost killed you before you were brought to us. Not very good teamwork, now, is that?"

Detrare reached out to tap Tesh on the shoulder. But instead of flesh, he tapped on something else through the cloth with a slight clinking noise. "Yes, most people don't even know when they've been spiked. Especially when they're unconscious when it happens. And you can't exactly feel it when you've lost all feeling in your arm. But please, look for yourself!" With a small smile, he then tore the sleeve of Tesh's shirt to let her see the spike embedded deep in her shoulder.

**Tesh:** A spike. In my shoulder. No. "I would walk through the flames of ****ation itself before I told you anything," I growl. But the spike…It must not distract me. If it did, I would probably end up killing all my friends. My family. "Mahshi," I whisper, "keep them safe."

**Meeker:** These answers were not what Ryker had wanted, but they would have to do for now. As Dawn turned away, Ryker could tell that the man was attempting not to cry. Questions about the past were a touchy subject, Ryker noted. He cautiously put a hand on Dawn's shoulder.

"Take this as you will - I am here for you if you ever need to talk about anything. I will listen to the best of my ability." With that, he turned, walking away and leaving Dawn to his Avair.

The ship shook slightly as he made his way to the quarterdeck to speak with the first mate. Ryker attempted to bring a vial to his lips but as the ship shook, more violently this time, he dropped it and it shattered on the deck, leaving him with only one vial, a pouch of coins, a Vedenar side sword, and one pouch of Stormlight.

"Rust and Ruin!" Ryker cursed as huge tentacles rose around the ship.

**Mist:** Dawn froze as the tentacles erupted from the sea of beads. This was no time to dwell on the past. Dawn did something he hadn't done in about a year: he tapped steel. He had stored steel almost nonstop all year, fearing that he would be caught off guard again. Fearing bearing the weight of another death.

The world seemed to slow to a stop around Dawn as he disarmed his trap, stuffed it in his pack, and grabbed his Aviar. Dawn raced over to Ryker, under a splash of water frozen in midair, very slowly arcing through the air towards the ship, and grabbed the Radiant. He also grabbed his spren, child, and gear to the side of the boat, taking a couple trips. Dawn stopped tapping, having drained almost all of his reserves, and the world seemed to speed up. Water crashed into the deck.

Ryker seemed disoriented, but Dawn yelled at him, "Fly us out!" Ryker shook off his confusion and tried to protest, wanting to save the crew. Dawn retorted, "No time. Go. Rwendeh will distract. Thene will hide us."

Ryker looked like he wanted to argue, but a tentacle struck the side of the ship, splintering wood and sending debris flying. Ryker stumbled away from the tentacle, shouldered his gear, then touched his spren, his child, and finally Dawn, Lashing them away. It was nauseating as gravity flipped and Dawn found himself falling toward the dark Shadesmar horizon, parallel to the sea of beads. He flailed a bit, but was glad to be moving away from the creature. Thene flew beside him, swooping to keep up, and Dawn was glad to have his mind hidden from the giant spren.

Dawn glanced backward, glimpsing Rwendeh. She dove around the spren, and it recoiled from her, tentacles pulling away. Rwendeh could send blasts of fear at targets she chose, and while it could incapacitate an unexpecting human, it only seemed to annoy the beast. After Rwendeh was sure they were far enough away, she would fly back to meet them. Dawn was sure she could do it. Well, mostly sure.

When Dawn, Thene, Ryker, the child, and the spren reached a thin strip of obsidian-black land, Ryker canceled their Lashings and and checked his spheres. The concern on his his face was evident upon seeing that only one clip of Stormlight remained.

When Dawn touched down on land, the full weight of what had happened crashed down upon him. The high of adrenaline had carried him until now, and he had ignored the implications of what was going on. Now it hit him and he realized he was lost in Shadesmar with strangers, having barely avoided death. Dawn was suddenly grateful for all the hours he had spent at sloth speed, vowing to store more speed whenever possible.

Now, he waited for Rwendeh to return. _If_ she returned. Dawn worried for the kingfisher, but knew she was too fast for the spren to catch. Unfortunately, Shadesmar held other dangers, and it was easy to get lost over the endless sea of beads. Dawn held Thene close and prayed for Rwendeh's return. He couldn't take another loss.

**Fire:** "Pity," Detrare said, backing away. "You really think your brother will stand a chance against us? He'll die just the same as you, only sooner. You can't save him. You can't protect any of them. The only mercy you can do for them now is to help us return them to the Beyond from which we came, as is the cycle of life, death, and change. After all, Ruin is change. Walk through ****ation itself, eh? Very well. Now what if we were to send someone else through there for your sake instead? How would you live with the knowledge that others have suffered because of your refusal to cooperate?"

He walked back to the tied-down honorspren, which still had the dagger below its chin held by Saun. The large man pressed it into the spren's neck excitedly. "How much pain can one endure?" Detrare continued. "I am warning you now, girl, if you don't speak up and tell us everything about the rest of your Knights - every member, every fortress, every secret that is the key to destroying them - then there will be blood and death on your hands. Are you willing to risk that?"

**Tesh:** He had heard me? The man must have supernatural hearing. Or tin. Then he speaks again. "How much pain can one endure? I am warning you now, girl, if you don't speak up and tell us everything about the rest of your Knights - every member, every fortress, every secret that is the key to destroying them - then there will be blood and death on your hands. Are you willing to risk that?"

"No." No. A simple word. One I have thought of many times in the past few minutes. But it has amazing power. Then an idea springs into my head. A feeble hope, but the flame is burning again, however faintly. "Give me Stormlight enough to heal my limbs. Then I'll answer your questions. Just don't hurt Ani, and don't make me hurt anyone else. Please." The resolve that had dripped from my voice minutes before is gone. But it's still there. Just for something else. They have to live.

**Quick:** Glowing people seemed to be a staple in this strange place. A few days into the journey, Mahshi spotted several glowing figures flying towards them. Tarenwel had convinced him to hide behind some small glass bushes and wait for them to arrive. He had hoped they would pass by, but instead they landed close by. Tarenwel removed a vial of bronze flakes from his belt, unstopped it, and quickly swallowed the contents. He had refrained from using Allomancy since leaving Scadrial, as there had been no immediate need and he had worried about running out of stores for when it became necessary. However, he decided that the arrival of Invested strangers was reason enough to use some of his precious supplies. Tarenwel burned bronze, letting the comfortable weight of his Allomancy spread through his body.

**Meeker:** _No more flying._ The thought hit him like a ton of bricks as he held up the one emerald chip, glowing faintly. He spared a glance at Dawn and the others. Ryker drew his side sword from his sheath and walked over to Dawn. "Don't ever ask me to run from a fight again. Wait here," he muttered, furiously, before trudging up the incline behind them.

At the top of the incline, Ryker saw that it sloped downward a ways before the obsidian ground disappeared into a forest of crystal trees, seeming to go on for miles. At the very end was a small light. A lighthouse, perhaps. Memories assaulted him and Ryker struggled to stay upright.

_Freshly spilled blood was on the ground. His trainer, a Lurcher, lay dead on the ground, chest full of small puncture holes. He had Pulled away the metal that was supposed to kill Ryker. The man who had killed him had broken the bones of some of his other group members by throwing them across the room with superhuman strength. The hooded man wielded an odd-looking sword that murdered their leader in a scuffle before fleeing. The man had been a Mistborn, the first he had seen. It wasn't the only time Ryker had fled from a fight during his time in Shadesmar._

Ryker shook himself from the memory, trudging down the incline back to the group. Dawn had been reunited with the Aviar he had left behind. Seeing the man hug his bird softened Ryker's heart.

"There is a lighthouse on the far side of this island. The fastest way through it to cross through the crystal forest. It is our best hope of survival. I don't have many rations left, as they were in my daughter's cabin, but I have enough for her and you, Dawn. Kayara doesn't need to eat," he informed them. "I have one emerald chip of Stormlight, one vial of steel, and two steelminds." He tapped his necklace. "I advise caution, even though your Aviar could hide us. Our emotions will give us away if we don't keep them under control."

With that he trudged back up the hill, not looking back to see if the rest of the group followed. He struggled with keeping his anger and frustration under wraps. If he did not it would not only mean his death, but that of his daughter, and Dawn. The man was growing on him, but he wouldn't admit it. Then there was Kayara - if he died, she would lose her memories. What a predicament they were in.

**Mist:** Dawn hugged Rwendeh, overjoyed to be reunited with her. He knew he had angered Ryker by forcing him to run, but even a Radiant stood no chance against such a creature. Dawn pushed those thoughts out of his mind and stood, turning to Ryker.

"Don't waste food on me," he said calmly, tossing a bag of jerky to Ryker. "This is for you. My Aviar will be fine for a couple days."

He turned to grab his pack, but a quiet clinking noise in a nearby glass bush caught his ear. Dawn whipped around, grabbed a thin net from his pack, then slunk around the back of the bush, taking a winding roundabout route that hid him completely from view. He expertly set the trap on the ground, setting a glass stick as the trigger, then drew his knife and concealed himself. He motioned to Rwendeh, signaling her to flush out whatever was hiding, as they had practiced so many times on Talrij. Before, he had been apprenticed to his father, but he had learned to take over the craft by himself in order to survive on Roshar.

Dawn remembered a time when he had not needed to hunt, when a kind ardent had taken him in and was prepared to leave the ardentia for him...but painful memories could wait. Dawn shelved the thoughts of Paileah and snapped back to the present as Rwendeh dove down to the bush and let out a blast of fear, as well as a shrieking war cry. Three figures stumbled wildly from the bush, then with a crack were wrapped up in his trap. Dawn stepped out from behind the tree.

"Who are you?" he growled in a low voice. "Why were you hiding?"

**Quick:** Tarenwel found himself wrapped up in a net, with one of the strangers yelling at him in a strange language. He must have detected them somehow and ambushed them! Had he used any Investiture? Tarenwel frowned, considering using his steel to cut out of the net, but decided to wait and see what the stranger was doing. "What do you want?" he asked.

**Tesh:** _What in ****ation? _Mahshi thinks,struggling against the net that is holding him. He sees a figure and two birds in front of him. He stills and opens his mouth to speak, but Tarenwel cuts him off. "What do you want?" The man's voice is curt, like a quick jab of a knife. He ignores the stranger's question.

"We're just trying to get to Scadrial. And we weren't hiding," Mahshi says, before the stranger can respond to Tarenwel's question. Three other figures round the bush. It's a very large bush. A man, a spren, and a child. What?

**Meeker:** Ryker stepped out into the small opening. Anger flared up inside him for a different reason. Dawn had done well with the ambush; the three strangers in front of him weren't the stealthiest, but his trap was still pretty impressive, as it had caught all of them. Ryker pointed his sword at the man who'd spoken.

"Scadrial, eh?" Ryker asks, stepping forward. "And how do we know you aren't lying? Don't think for one second I won't run you through if I hear a lie. Speak now or I will have no choice but to treat you as our prisoners."

Something tickled the back of his mind. _Sahin...Sahin the Just. _Then he was thrown into his memories.

_"Who are you?" Ryker asked._

_"Me? My name is Aurell. Aurell Faine, pleased to meet you, Ryker Sinclair."_

_"Bah! Enough with the pleasantries," a gruff voice stated from behind her. "If you are to join our group, boy, you are to take on a different name."_

_"Yes, sir," Ryker said timidly. _

_Aurell stepped aside, allowing Ryker to see a scarred older man in his fifties, face covered in scars. He cautiously walked to the table and sat down. Drinks, ale specifically, were delivered to the table shortly after. _

_"We need a map of the Basin, and your reward will be to travel through the perpendicularly with us, for starters," the man said. "From now on you'll be called Sahin the Just."_

_"It seems a bit Returnedish, doesn't it?" Aurell asked._

_"Maybe, maybe not." The man waved her off._

_Ryker looked to Aurell, who shrugged. She would be the only one to survive what was coming. _

A shriek brought Ryker back to the present. He lowered his sword by a quarter inch as he looked around. "Stormsstormsstorms," he cursed. "There's a lighthouse at the far end of the island. Start heading there, now! From those sounds, there are a lot of angerspren headed our way. I will keep them occupied here."

Ryker ushered his spren and daughter to the three in front of him. He bent down and cut them from the net, helping each to their feet. "Ishar's hand! _Run!"_ He shouted at them. "Go, Dawn! Lead them to the lighthouse. I brought the angerspren here; I'll only be a liability. I won't take no for an answer! Now _go!_"

He watched the group disappear into the forest. He downed his last vial of steel and dropped the glass tube to the ground. It shattered on the obsidian ground. He snatched his remaining coins from his pouch, and turned to find a hideous beast launching itself at his throat.

**Tesh:** Mahshi follows the group into the forest a ways, then slips back and steps into the clearing, where the stranger is standing. "You won't make it," he says firmly. He can see the red shapes in the distance. "Come on."

Mahshi flares pewter and taps steel. He scoops up the man, flings him over his shoulder, and runs towards the distant light. The man lets out an _Oof_ as Mahshi starts running, but he ignores it. He hasn't tapped his steel or burned pewter in months. The whole time, he was simply storing speed; except for the occasional time when he needed to move fast. But even then, he'd left his metalminds untapped. And now, with that comfortable fire burning in him, and the feeling of freedom flooding through his body, he simply lets himself be.

**Quick:** The Feruchemist left. Tarenwel didn't care. He wondered what he had been doing for the past few weeks. What had he accomplished? Nothing.

He had set out on this crazy escapade to pursue a criminal, but he hadn't come any closer to that goal. He had merely gotten himself embroiled in a conflict so important, so overreaching, so _huge_, he couldn't even comprehend it or hope to change its outcome. He hadn't even helped the man back there. Shouldn't he have done that? After all, he was a lawman. It was his job to help other people. Wasn't it?

Tarenwel finally admitted to himself why he hadn't helped. He had been tired. Afraid. That was a weakness he couldn't afford to have. He _had_ gotten involved in something larger than himself. He _was _too small to affect the outcome. But he didn't have to stay that way. Tarenwel looked back in the direction that they had fled. Perhaps he should help in the fight...but no. The man could handle himself; he was a Knight Radiant. The people next to him, however...

One was a small girl. Another was a spren, a strange being of Roshar. Mahshi, who acted like he'd never slept under the open sky. And one other. He was different - Tarenwel could see it in the way he moved, the way he spoke. Even if he couldn't hear the words, he could interpret the tone. This was a man accustomed to hardship.

"Move quickly." Tarenwel encouraged. "If those creatures overwhelm the Skybreaker, they may be able to run us down before we arrive at the lighthouse." He made gestures towards the lighthouse, hoping to get the intent across.

**Mist:** The lighthouse burst from the obsidian ground like a worm after the rain, reaching into the dimly lit sky. Its shadow stretched toward the too-small sun, defiantly rejecting the world's expectations.

Dawn led the way toward it, glancing back every few seconds to ensure he had not lost anybody in their flight. The Terris man had left very early on, but Dawn had let him go. Ryker would fare better with help, help that Dawn could not give. He had stretched the man taut already by forcing him to leave the boat. Any farther would snap something in the Radiant's mind, a sense of duty born of years of service and previous shortcomings. Dawn knew better than to press. Every man or woman deserved their secrets.

The child seemed scared, but the spren woman comforted her as though she were her own child. Dawn was glad somebody was caring for her; the poor thing must have been traumatized by all the fighting and action. Then again, the child held her composure, so she must have been stronger than he had assumed.

The last man's posture projected authority, even as he encouraged on the group. He glanced back longingly, and he caught a glimpse of hunger, mixed with faint fear. No, not outward fear, more fear at...himself, Dawn supposed. Dawn likened men to beasts when it came to character analysis, and the last man reminded Dawn of a caged predator, seeking a goal, but trapped by circumstance from achieving it.

Dawn led on, keeping a brisk pace, until the group reached the lighthouse. Dawn motioned for the hungry man to enter first, followed by the spren and the girl. Dawn set up watch outside and motioned for the others to continue without him into the lighthouse. He didn't want to deal with more strangers today. Instead, he sent Rwendeh and Thene out to patrol the surrounding countryside and warn him of the angerspren's approach.

Dawn had gone too far now. He was again trapped in the company of humans. The memories bubbled up, and he pushed them back down. He wasn't safe yet. He couldn't accept her fate now. The question was, would he ever be able to? And what of his family? Would be live his life hiding from the deaths? But if he accepted them, would they overcome him? Dawn didn't know. A proverb the Eelakin trappers had passed down surfaced from his mind: _Those who run from what was, fall to what is. _

**Quick:** Tarenwel scanned the main room as he entered the lighthouse. No one was present. The room was largely empty, except for a table and a few chairs up against a wall by a window. He flared his bronze for a second, detecting nothing, then stopped burning it. It wouldn't be too helpful in a cramped area like this.

**Meeker:** Ryker breathed in sharply, drawing in the Stormlight from the last sphere he had. He Lashed the man carrying him several times in the direction they were traveling. At the same time, he Lashed himself in the other direction. The man tripped, flew forward, and smashed into one of the crystalline trees. Ryker hovered for a moment before the sphere ran out and he dropped to the ground. As the Twinborn stood up, Ryker Pushed a coin from his hand; it zipped past the man's ear.

"Touch me again, and I put another one through your brain," Ryker growled, livid. "Follow me and I will do likewise."

He disappeared into the forest, heading back to the place where he had dropped his sword. The growls grew louder as he approached. He propelled himself into the air from a coin he had just dropped and hung for a moment before angling himself and Pushing off against a new coin. This left him with a single piece of metal. The jump had been a little off; Ryker hit the ground, pulling himself into a roll.

He trudged through the forest a ways before he entered the clearing where he had been moments before. He stooped and picked his sword up, his anger uncontainable. If he headed back to the lighthouse now, he would endanger his daughter and Kayara, and his newly acquired friend Dawn. He could let them live if he stayed away. If he became a sacrifice. He turned to the lighthouse one last time.

"Forgive me, Skylar. Forgive me, Kayara." He bowed his head, whispering. "Please watch over her for me, Dawn."

He sank to the ground as the first angerspren attacked him.

Ryker screamed as the claws tore into this flesh. Yet he still sat there, bearing the torment and the agony. Another ripped his jaw from his face. Blood coated the black stone beneath him. He remembered the words of his master.

_"There will be a fight that you can not win, one that will leave you scarred, broken. I give you this as a replacement for what you will lose."_

He screamed in defiance. All the metal on his body was flung outward, cutting down his attackers. He lifted his sword and cut the head of angerspren clean off. He twirled and impaled another in the chest. As he fought he purged the anger from his soul. He would see his daughter again. See her smile and giggle. Ryker fought for her. He fought like he had never fought before. Bodies of the beasts he fought piled up around him.

Finally his sword broke on the last angerspren. He threw the broken blade, regarding it as a piece of refuse. Something glowed nearby, a small horde of chips by a crystal tree. They were enough to stop the bleeding. Once the tempest inside him had calmed, he brought out a pouch that he had carried for five long years. A rebreather. He strapped it on, covering his lost jaw. In his reflection in the trees, he saw that he had acquired a new scar across his right eye. He pulled his hood over his head and began the walk back to the lighthouse a new man. A broken man.

**Tesh:** Mahshi hears screaming from the direction the man went. The Lashings wore off a few minutes ago, and he now sits against a tree, waiting for the fight to end. And it does.

He stands up, rubbing his shoulder where he had hit the tree. He hadn't dared to burn pewter, for fear of using too much. He walks back to the clearing and sees the man, Ryker, standing. Mahshi approaches him, apprehensive, until he sees his chest rising and falling with a slow rhythm. He leans down and places a hand on Ryker's shoulder.

"It's time to go," he says.

**Meeker:** Ryker allows Mahshi to pull him to his feet and lead him to the lighthouse. Upon arrival, he flips his last coin down and launches himself to the top, where he sits and hangs his head in silence.

**Mist:** Dawn watched Ryker Steelpush to the top of the lighthouse and watched his blood splatter to the ground as he soared to the top. Dawn gathered himself and entered the lighthouse. "Stay here," he said to the group of people. He pointed to the Terris man and the hungry man, and Thene, then commanded, "Watch the girl. Keep her safe."

Drawing a knife and removing his shoes, Dawn started up the staircase, feet soundlessly touching the cold stone steps. He saw nobody as he crept up the silent staircase. It spiraled upwards for several more floors, yet each was empty. Musty bookshelves lined one room, stark sleeping quarters another. Yet another held weapons, with a large mounted gun of Scadrian import pointing out a window. Dawn crept all the way to the roof, emerging into the crisp half-light. Ryker sat on the roof, wearing a broken, beaten down expression Dawn knew all too well. Dawn sat next to him, not speaking. Rwendeh fluttered off his shoulder, swooping off to patrol the area.

Dawn did not ask questions, or try to force the man to talk. If Ryker wanted to talk, he would. There was no use in trying to force that. For a time, they sat in silence, staring out over the sea of beads stretching to the horizon under the small, dim sun.

Ryker was broken now. But so was Dawn. Shattering one's mind and crushing their hope, however, does not kill a person. Life goes on; it is Cultivated and Preserved, then Ruined again. Men and women will feel Odium, Honor, Devotion, Autonomy, and Ambition. People lose their Dominion, only to be Endowed with something new and different. Just because some of these Shards are dead meant nothing unto how they were expressed in people, for no idea could truly be killed. The cycle repeats.

Yes, Ryker had been broken. But all the parts were still there. Life came back. Ryker would come back. And maybe, just maybe…Dawn might, too.

**Quick:** The weird, tough-looking guy pointed to Tarenwel and Mahshi, saying something in a foreign language. Tarenwel turned to Mahshi. "Do you have any idea what he said?" he asked the Feruchemist.

**Meeker:** Ryker removes his hood and withdraws the rebreather from his face, allowing Dawn to see the missing jaw, before reattaching it. He stares out at the crystalized trees. "I don't know how much longer I can continue like this." His voice has a hint of metal to it. "I hope nothing else goes wrong. I only have two Feruchemical storages I can burn." Ryker indicates his necklace, which holds a small key around it. He shudders. "This place brings back memories."

**Mist:** _Good, Ryker's speaking,_ thought Dawn. His jaw wound looked painful, but he could still speak using the device. The man would be all right. The knowledge that his Stormlight had not healed his jaw did not bode well for it ever healing, however, as Ryker likely had some cognitive block. "There are memories for me as well," Dawn replied.

**Meeker:** Ryker sighs. "I feel that I should go by the name I received before entering this place the first place. Sahin the Just. I feel like it would serve as a reminder to do better." He slips the necklace from his neck, twisting the key between his fingers. "My mother gave this to me when I was young and told me about a high tower that was surrounded by dark beads. She said it would be my grandest adventure. I don't know if that place still exists, if it ever did. But I assume that it is here in Shadesmar." Ryker's eyes grow distant when he mentions his mother.

**Tesh:** "Yes." Mahshi falls silent, leans against a wall, and slides down it before the questioner can inquire further.

**Quick:** Tarenwel frowned slightly before asking, "What _did_ he say?"

**Tesh:** "He told us to stay put. And watch the girl."

**Quick:** Tarenwel shrugged. "Easy enough." He sat down in one of the chairs and inspected the girl he was supposed to be watching, as well as the highspren.


	10. Yay, I'm Here Now

**Ene:** I crouch by the door of the large lighthouse, listening. Having just arrived at this new structure, I hope to stay here for a time. Moving around in the Cognitive Realm can get confusing. As I neared, however, I heard voices; so now I wait here, listening.

**Meeker:** Ryker abruptly motions to Dawn to be quiet, then leaps down off the roof, using the same coin he used to get to the top to land safely. His steel runs out. Ryker pulls a knife from his boot. "Who is there? I know you're out there! Come out and I won't hurt you."

**Quick:** Tarenwel heard Ryker yelling outside. He turned to the window and peered out, activating his Allomancy at the same time.

**Ene:** I wince. How in Harmony's name did they hear me? I'm normally good at sneaking. A Tineye? Or worse… "No hurting necessary, sir," I yell, stepping out from behind a bush. "I'm just a kid." _Not that I can't be lethal, if the situation requires it. _Warily, I glance around, searching for the voice's owner.

**Meeker:** "Come out into the light where I can see you. I won't hurt you if you comply."

**Ene:** I edge out of the lighthouse's shadow, still eyeing my surroundings. "I really don't want any trouble. I would prefer to keep my health."

**Meeker:** "I don't plan to hurt you - only if you harm my companions, specifically my daughter, will anything happen to you," Ryker replies. "I honestly don't tend to be this way, but your sudden presence caught me off guard."

**Tesh:** Mahshi walks out of the lighthouse with the rest of the group. They are yelling at a girl in her mid-teens, probably. She has an axehound walking around her. Strange. How had they gotten out here?

**Meeker:** Ryker looks towards Mahshi, who emerged from the lighthouse. "Do you want to handle this? I feel like you could do a better job at the time being."

**Tesh:** "Might as well," Mahshi shrugs, and walks towards the girl. "What's your name? I'm Mahshi." Storms, she's young to be traveling the Cognitive Realm alone. But then again, so is he.

**Ene:** I let out a tense breath. "I'm Diona Rokni. And you?"

**Meeker:** "I'm Ryker," Ryker announces before walking into the lighthouse.

**Ene:** I look after him, then glance at the others uneasily.

**Mist:** Dawn taps steel and sprints down the staircase, pulling free a knife and bursting through the door. He stopped tapping steel as he saw a girl and an axehound, standing in front of the man Ryker and the Terris man, looking like deer.

Rwendeh and Thene fluttered down to his shoulders, glaring at the girl. She was young, but that did not preclude her from being dangerous.

**Ene:** I startle as I notice a young man flashing through the door of the lighthouse at an incredible speed. _Steelrunner. _With two Aviar on his shoulders, this man looks dangerous...and suspicious.

**Quick:** The door opened, then shut quickly - blurringly quickly. A faint bronze pulse accompanied the motion. Tarenwel's head snapped towards it. Another Steelrunner? He stood and walked towards the door.

**Meeker:** Ryker goes inside looking for the lighthouse attendee, finding the man in one of the back rooms. One that had been, miraculously, unchecked. "I want to know when the next ship is going to arrive."

"Tomorrow," the man said. "Early tomorrow. Headed toward Scadrial."

"Perfect," he replied.

**Ene:** I stared at the diverse crowd circling me and started burning my zinc. Careful not to influence them too much, I Rioted their acceptance and their willingness to talk. "So. May I ask where you all are headed?"

None of them said anything.

"Okaaay," I muttered, staring at my circle of silent observers. I took a step back, then headed for the lighthouse, stepping inside.

**Quick:** "Hey," Tarenwel said to the young kid who stepped inside the lighthouse.

**Meeker:** Ryker walks back into the main room. "The ship will arrive here tomorrow morning, heading toward Scadrial."

**Mist:** Dawn followed the girl inside. He didn't trust her. She seemed open and honest, but her eyes said otherwise. They held a glint of predatory malice, buried deep within them, that bespoke danger. This girl had been hardened by life beyond her years.

Ryker walked in and announced their departure. The hungry man spoke to the girl cordially. Dawn sat by the wall, watching unblinkingly and storing speed, not letting go of his knife. He could never truly let down his guard.

**Meeker:** Ryker picked up his daughter and walked over to Dawn, looking at him and then back at the girl. "Is everything okay?"

**Ene:** I flicked a look at the threatening Steelrunner, who sat by the wall, not liking the thought that someone might try to kill me in the night. I started filling one of my goldminds, then strolled over to the weathered man in the corner, not bothering to Riot anyone. With that Aviar, there was no point. Yes, the Steelrunner could be an issue.

**Mist:** Dawn slowly turned toward Ryker, then stopped filling his metalminds to speak. "Maybe," he said, after pausing and thinking over how he felt.

**Meeker:** "Would it make you feel any better if I kept an eye on her?" Ryker whispered.

**Mist:** "Yes." Dawn laid the words bare, so all could hear. He would not hide his distrust of the girl. He had already accepted five total strangers as friends within the week. Any more was pushing it. No, the girl would need to be watched.

**Meeker:** "I assume you will be doing the same?" Ryker asked, in a hushed tone, then louder said. "I'm worried about this new ship, especially what happened to the last one, eh Dawn?"

**Mist:** Dawn shuddered. The last boat had gone poorly.

**Tesh:** Mahshi walks in after the girl. "I'm Mahshi...Kholin." She most likely wouldn't recognize the name. "What leads you here?"

**Ene:** "Kholin?" I repeat, surprised. "As in Blackthorn, Kholin?"

**Meeker:** _Interesting, _Ryker muses.

**Mist:** Dawn spoke, addressing the group. "We should sleep before tomorrow." He shot the girl a look that said _I am watching you._

**Ene:** Meeting the trapper's glare, I raise a sarcastic eyebrow like _Just try something_. Oh yes, this one will be trouble. I sigh.

**Meeker:** Ryker sighs too as he notices the exchange. "Can we not kill each other for one night?"

**Tesh:** _Great..._"Yes. Where are you from?"

**Ene:** "I can if Mr. Storing-Speed can." I grin, then turn to Mahshi. "Well, here, actually. The Cognitive Realm is the first thing I can remember. I've been around, though."

**Mist:** Dawn sat down next to his pack, entering a half trance of near sleep that allowed him to keep an eye out for sudden movements. It was akin to sleeping with one eye open. He would eventually slip into a deeper sleep, but until then it was best to be wary. He didn't have time for the girl's pettiness.

**Tesh:** "Oh. How have you heard of Dalinar, then?"

**Ene:** "Oh, you know. Dalinar is...important...in certain circles...of the cosmere," I said evasively. "I've just heard of him." I wondered how cosmere-aware this group was, exactly. Being in the Cognitive Realm didn't always mean you knew where you were.

**Tesh:** "Funny. During my time on Scadrial, I only heard his name once. A strange woman came up to me and whispered something about me looking Alethi, which I am, then asked me if I had heard of Dalinar Kholin. I said yes, and all she did was disappear into the crowd." Mahshi stares at the girl, and she stares right back. Her eyes bore into his own. Mahshi looks away, smiling slightly. "What planets have you visited?"

**Ene:** "Roshar, Scadrial, Nalthis, Threnody, and First of the Sun," I said carefully as we began to settle in for the night.

**SD:** Dan stood among the crowd, tailing the man who was called Quell. Blending in with the colorful crowd, he soon saw Quell meet up with his informant. He tapped hearing. _So, looking for Girth? _He followed the man for another short distance, turning into a dark alleyway.

Dan suddenly spoke. "I'm sure my employer would be most interested in meeting with you."

**Ink: **I jump, pistol in my hand as the man tailing me speaks. "Your employer?" I ask.

**SD: **Dan smiled. "Why of course. Is Girth not the man you seek?"

**Ink: **"Yes...how did you find out? I thought Zen and I were out of earshot of anyone else." I raise my pistol. "How do I know this isn't a trap?"

"I'm a Ferring," Dan said, grinning. "I tapped a bit of hearing and listened in on your little discussion. And to speak as my employer would, you cannot know whether or not this is a trap." His smile broadened. "But we know your curiosity will not allow you to pass up this opportunity. Girth will be waiting for you at So Good It'll Steal Your Breath in two days." At that, he backed away, not taking his eyes off the other man. When he had reached the edge of the alleyway, he spoke again. "Good afternoon, Quell." He disappeared into the crowds.

"Ferrings. Harmony. I need something to deter them. Well, I have to meet this guy with no idea what'll storming go down. Rust and Ruin, it's my only option, but one I don't like. So Good It'll Steal Your Breath...I've never been there," I mutter to myself.

**SD: **Girth sat impatiently at his table. Quell was late; he had already waited long enough. It'd taken his spies weeks to discover the man's intentions - he wasn't very talkative. It had taken even longer to set up his 'chance' encounter with Dan. But no matter. This was no time for complaints. Girth could finally get these two men - Quell and that Benjamin fellow - out of the way. Sure, he could have just had them killed, but that would not be as useful to his purposes.

Finally, a sullen looking man who could only be Quell walked through the doorway

**Ink:** I look around the room and spot Girth. _He certainly lives up to his name. _I chuckle, then walk over and sit down. "So, you're the one they call Girth. I've heard you know where the perpendicularity on this world is. It would benefit me if you would tell me where it is, but knowing men like you, there will be a price attached. Name it."

**SD:** Girth watched as Quell made his way and sat down at his table. "I've heard you know where the perpendicularity on this world is. It would benefit me if you would tell me where it is, but knowing men like you, there will be a price attached. Name it."

Girth swallowed. "Straight to the point, aren't you? Yes, I do happen to know where the perpendicularity is. However, I'm afraid there is no price. _I _won't be giving you that information." He smiled broadly.

**Ink: **I burn zinc to rile him up and maybe get him to help me. "Well, I was told you could help me. What _can_ you do that would be worth my time? There are always others I could get information from. Otherwise, you're wasting my time."

I get up and leave. This just isn't worth it. As I walk out, a hand goes over my mouth and a familiar voice says "You're coming with me..." right before I black out.

I wake up blindfolded. I'm probably not on Nalthis anymore, but where am I?

"You're the one who escaped," the voice says. Now I recognize it. Violet, the worldhopper who kidnapped me. I remember being lost, her acting so nice and pretending to help me find my parents, but then, before I could blink, I was in a strange, inhospitable land. I broke free and ran, and she never caught up, but I'd know that voice anywhere.

"Yes, I am. You've finally caught up," I say.

"Sorry about this kidnapping, but my sources tell me you've become much more powerful. I admire how hard you've worked. I'll offer you a deal; we're in the Cognitive Realm, and I know of a ship leaving for Scadrial tomorrow. I will let you go, but you will, in turn, bring me a Hemalurgic spike. I don't care what kind, I just need one."

I am hesitant, but I accept her terms, and the blindfold is torn off. In the distance is a lighthouse that seems to have people inside. That spike may prove troublesome to get, but I need to get home. Maybe I can salvage one from an Inquisitor. I turn around, but Violet is gone.

"Rust and Ruin. Let's hope those people in the lighthouse are friendly..."

**Mist:** Dawn woke. The lighthouse was dripping with shadows, a single flickering lantern casting dancing light across the walls. Some of the company slept on the first floor in the entry hall with Dawn; others could be heard snoring from other rooms and from upstairs.

The girl, the one he mistrusted so, seemed to be asleep across the room. Something in her face triggered the memories he had stifled all these days. There was no reason for that. Sure, she looked a little like Paileah, but that meant nothing. Didn't it?

Dawn felt like a dam in his mind was breaking. Memories of Paileah that he had suppressed were clawing at him like nightmaws, ripping through his consciousness at inopportune times. It was all he could do to restrain them. Dawn looked around and realized that nothing was happening now. It was as good a time as any to face his failure.

Dawn steeled himself, filling his metalmind as he gathered his nerves. While he reminisced, he might as well store some speed. Breathing slowed to a calm intake and exhale in his chest, he released the memories. They crashed through his brain like a rogue wave, tearing at his mind and sweeping through his thoughts. Dawn struggled to stay afloat for a moment, then relaxed and sank into the memory.

_Stumbling down from the peak, screaming until he was hoarse. The loss of his father and brother had almost destroyed him. What he had done...no. He hid instead. _

_Dawn tried to hide, to disappear, but he stumbled into a small monastery, what he would later learn was home to some of the Jah Keved ardentia. When he had arrived, they had mocked him, laughing at his simple trapper clothes in a language he didn't understand. They berated him, to the best of his understanding, and tried to force him to leave, but Dawn had begged for sleep, food, and water. They couldn't understand him, of course, no matter if he spoke Eelakin or Terris. He truly wasn't on Scadrial. One ardent, however, was fascinated with him. She took him in, arguing with the higher-ups in the ardentia to give him food and lodging so she could study his strange languages. She was a linguist, and the strange sounds of his languages held unknown wonders to her. _

_Later, Dawn would learn that a strange white-haired man had run into her in the Kharbranth Palaneum who had seen the book she was reading, Languages of Roshar, and laughed that Roshar only held so many languages, and that the ones on Scadrial and Sel were very interesting as well. Paileah had grown up in Kharbranth, where she had studied in hopes of joining the ardentia to escape the social rules and restrictions. _

_This had confused Dawn, as she had gone on to choose a very womanly Calling - according to what he had learned of Vorin culture. She had laughed, a sound that was harsh, not at all the bell laugh of a so-called proper lady, yet one that called to Dawn even more so. Paileah said she did it for the food, as she loved spice, but Dawn knew it was more due to her natural inclination towards nonconformity and her desire to avoid being forced into the role of a wife. _

_The white haired man had inspired her, and despite all her digging, she could find no other mention of Scadrial or Sel, and became convinced these places were otherworldly in nature. Dawn had rekindled some of that spark in her, with his strange dialect, some buried interest smothered in the more pressing issues of the effect of Alethi glyphs on Thaylen graphemes, or the origin of the Unkalaki pronoun gendering. _

_Paileah had struggled to teach Dawn Veden, but once he had gained a rudimentary understanding of it, she began questioning Dawn about his past, gently and kindly, as nobody had ever asked before. Dawn had opened up, telling her about his childhood, about First of the Sun, about the Cognitive Realm, about his dreams of reaching Scadrial with his brother and father. He had even told her about their deaths, something he had never done before and would likely never do again. After the initial struggle, Dawn had quickly mastered Veden, moving on to Alethi and Thaylen. He had learned each with the relative ease born of a bilingual upbringing and rigorous studying. _

_Paileah dissected Eelakin and Terris with him, eagerly sharing her findings via spanreed with a mysterious person named Tyltriina Amberscade, who Paileah would not speak of except to label her not a member of the ardentia and to praise her as a leading expert in many scientific fields. She was apparently one of the greatest minds of their time, outshone only by Jasnah Kholin and a few other, less intelligent but more forthcoming and media-savvy women who captured the spotlight. _

_Over time, however, the other ardents began to feel that Dawn was a distraction to the entire monastery, a man with no scholarly background who was not an ardent taught to write and allowed to directly interact with a rather young, female ardent. They felt Dawn and Paileah shared a budding romance that poisoned the atmosphere of scholarship. _

_They weren't wrong about the romance. Dawn was enchanted by the compassion, optimism, and excitement Paileah showed the world. Her personality brightened any room, a glow like Stormlight, yet more incorporeal and at the same time all too real. Paileah kept her head shaved like a proper ardent, yet that didn't bother Dawn. He got lost in her bright blue eyes, which contrasted from her tan skin like the the sea did the shore. Also, she loved his birds. She had always fed and cared for them, showing kindness in a way he himself had thought was impossible to give except by family. Paileah knew the relationship would be improper, and though she did her best to maintain an outward appearance of kindred indifference when in the company of others, she could not help her feelings for him; his quiet outward face, weathered and scarred like a boulder left in the path of a highstorm, was strong even in the face of his internal struggle. _

_Paileah had a quality about her that drove back the darkness, a kind of shield to the knives of pain Dawn felt. Her smile, the air of cheerfulness, it lifted his spirits and cleared away the cold, salty tears. He clung to her in hopes of never regressing, enjoying every second he spent with her, chatting about Iriali linguistic theory and how Azir's dialect shifting affected the Makabaki region. One night, they sat under the stars, laughing about how different life was now for Dawn, and smiling at the dancing starspren high above, watching Thene and Rwendeh soar in circles. She had kissed him, and it was a feeling like soaring through the clouds. In that moment, he had hoped to never return to the darkness, to never lose Paileah, whatever it took. _

_Hope died hard. _

_The next morning, everything fell apart. One ardent had watched Dawn and Paileah kiss, and soon it was the talk of the monastery. Paileah was offered two choices: leave the ardentia or ban Dawn from ever returning. Dawn knew how much she loved her studies, how she had worked her whole life to reach where she was. He knew she would give it all away. So he decided for her. _

_"She will stay." Paileah looked as though to object, but Dawn said, "You have worked your whole life for this. I won't destroy that for you. Live. Laugh. Be happy. I was glad to know you, and as long as you are happy and safe, I can rest easy." _

_"You do not speak for her." said a tall ardent, who seemed to be in charge. He pushed Dawn away. That was his mistake. Dawn tapped speed and ducked inside his guard, pinning him to the ground. _

_"Don't touch me," he hissed. Another ardent drew a sword, and swung it at him, forcing Dawn to get off the man and jump back. Two more ardents drew swords. Dawn pulled a concealed knife out of his boot and tapped steel as the ardents attacked. He parried one woman's strike, leapt over another ardent's sword and elbowed them in the stomach, then kicked the third in the chest. The woman swung at him again, but Dawn held the blow with his knife, stepping around the woman's guard with unnatural speed and disarming her. _

_His steel ran out. One of the other ardents got up, then swung at him. Without steel to react, he was slow, and the swordsman caught the side of his arm. Fire ran up his arm, striking his brain like white-hot needles. He grunted, then fell back into a defensive stance, eyes watering from the pain. He had felt pain before. He would live. Behind him, another ardent threw a spear at his back. He turned, too slow. _

_Paileah rushed over to check if he was okay, stepping into the path of the spear. He tried to warn her. He leapt at her, trying to tackle her away. _

_The spear struck her body, and she went limp, crashing to the ground. _

_You killed her. _

_"NO!" he screamed. He bandaged her wound quickly, using techniques he had learned from the Eelakin. _

_It's your fault she is dead. _

_He ran to the medical ward. It was too late for her. _

_YOU KILLED HER. _

_Dawn ran away that night. Into the forest, never to return to man. He swore he would not do it. _

_SHE IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU. _

_He was a murderer. His hope, his light, his joy. Shattered. Broken by a spear. Blood splattering against her robes, stark against the white of the ardentia. _

_IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. SHE IS DEAD. _

_The darkness rushed back into him, filling another hole in his heart. A heart too broken already. He held onto Thene and Rwendeh with all his heart and soul. They were all he had left. A blackness like midnight dipped in oil, the feeling of pain like fire burning through his mind, taking all his light and joy and burning it all away. He was a murderer. _

_DEAD. GONE. _

_Again. _

_Forever. _

_Dawn cried. _

Tears slid down Dawn's cheeks as he surfaced in the present. Fresh pain burned in his mind, new as the day she had died. Salty tears had dried on his face, making him feel like he was wearing a mask. A mask of sorrow, he figured. Dawn let the tears flow, washing away all feeling. He had killed her. He had killed them all. Sadness and darkness, like twin tides, rose over him, casting him into their gloom. Tears traced lines and dancing curves on his cheeks. Dancing to the broken melody of silence.

Dawn wept for what he had done. He had caused Paileah's death. He had led her on one of the Ten Fools' own ventures, and she had paid the price. He deserved to die. The spear had been meant for him. Fully knowing the cost of his actions, Dawn had caused her death. The shield that had blocked the pain within him was now one of the knives, tearing through his mind. Darkness trailed in their wake as they sliced though his heart, cutting out light and joy. It was his fault. He had killed her. He was a murderer, threefold.

Dawn cried.

**Meeker:** A hand fell on Dawn's shoulder, and Ryker sat down next to the crying man. He might not want company. But Dawn had been there for him, so Ryker could be there for Dawn.

**Ene:** I woke. I didn't know what had caused the change, but I tensed, listening. Footsteps. And was that…it was. The quiet sounds of crying. Those sounds and I knew each other well enough. I opened my eyes slowly, attempting to shift and see where the tears were originating without waking anyone else up.

**Mist:** Dawn wept, quietly, rocking back and forth slightly, curled into a ball. He leaned slightly on the man Ryker, grateful for the support. The girl across the room stirred slightly, but Dawn ignored it. Let them see him. Let them look upon a murderer.

**Tesh:** Mahshi walks quietly down the hall and looks into the room. He'd been sitting outside, unable to sleep. The unmoving sun had messed up his internal clock.

The quiet weeping that woke him appears to be coming from Dawn, who is leaning against Ryker. Mahshi approaches and sits next to the crying man, quiet. He'll just be there. He doesn't know these men at all, but sometimes, that doesn't matter. As long as there's something there, firm and unmoving, just _there_, there's a feeling that all will get better.

_When we were young, Tesh was there. I was there. All we needed were each other and Sazin. _But she is gone, now.

**Mist:** "I killed her." The words were plain, bare like a rock jutting from the waves. Dawn's voice wavered slightly, but he choked out the phrase. "I killed them, too."

Dawn pulled himself to his feet and slowly walked out of the lighthouse, pushing open the door. He ignored Ryker's protest to stay and the people following him out. Dawn entered the crisp light and knelt on the ground, slipping a small Pathian earring into his ear.

_Harmony, _he thought, projecting his thoughts in Terris, _do not forgive me. Look at me and see a murderer and failure. Never let me forget. Please, Harmony, please, never let me kill another I love. _

Dawn turned around, pulling out the earring and pushing past Ryker and Mahshi and into the room. He sat once again and held his birds. He would not cry anymore. Tears accomplished nothing. Inside, however, he was broken, his heart sitting like shattered glass in his chest, cutting him more with every beat. Tears were useless because sorrow was eternal. Infinity cannot be expressed, nor hidden.

Dawn wiped his face dry, but inside he wept a salty, raging ocean, Tearing him apart. He had not faced the worst.

**Ene:** Dawn walked out, and I winced. I'd intended to speak to him about the bad impression we had given each other earlier, but now seemed like a bad time. Mahshi and Ryker were here now. I should just stay out of this.

**Fire:** Detrare cocked his head, slightly surprised. "Well, if that's what you desire," he said, deciding on what to do next.

He walked over to the middle-aged woman, handing her the papers as she released the spren into Saun's hands. Then he reached into another pocket of his robes, pulling out the wooden box. As he walked back to Tesh, he opened it, letting the gleaming red-violet glow of the perfect gemstone within fill the room. It seemed realistic enough to mimic a gem full of Stormlight. But he already knew what to do with it now.

"Always handy to have your Stormlight on hand, eh?" he said to her with a smile. He lifted the gem out of the box and held it to her face. "You have to guarantee to me that you'll tell me all you can first. If you talk, you give away your friends and they die. Don't talk, and we will kill many innocents until they come to us and we will exterminate them at a later time. No matter what you do, the results will be the same. Death and desolation will come upon all, but you will be able to decide how much of it you will be responsible for. That is simply the way of things. So thank you for seeing reason." He readied himself to seize control of Tesh's soul.

**Tesh:** I stare. So much light...I feel the fingers of darkness and cold begin to slip away. A deep breath. Strength floods my body, and I slowly feel my limbs again. No words can describe the power of Stormlight running through you, giving you the will to live.

I would never, ever, let anything like this happen again. A thought. "Oh Almighty," I whisper. "Oh, Jezrien, king of the Heralds. What did I just do?" I sink to my knees, accompanying the sinking feeling of guilt. I just doomed the Knights of the Cosmere. I had said to not make me hurt the others. That didn't mean Detare couldn't. The betrayer.

**Mist:** The boat pulled into the dock in Scadrial, and Dawn felt a growing sense of unease. He had dreamed of going to Scadrial his whole life, and now that he was here he was tied up in affairs beyond his control, dealing with Inquisitors, rescue missions, and imminent combat against Invested enemies.

It was terrifying to think about. Dawn had asked Harmony to protect his birds all trip, without so much as acknowledgement. That had never bothered him before, but now he hoped somebody could protect them. It didn't help that he had to hide from the rest of his companions. He had shown weakness to them unwillingly, and he hated the sympathetic looks they gave him. He was sure they mocked him behind his back, they fretted over how Dawn was crying and needed help.

To ****ation with all of them. This was what he got for associating with men. Nothing but pain came from companionship. Nothing.

A lie. He knew it. Paileah, his brother, his father, his mother. They disproved it. But he had failed them, and now they caused him pain as well, sharp as a knife off the grinding stone. What he did had caused that. They weren't the problem. It was him.

**Fire:** Detrare rested his hand on Tesh's shoulder, smiling calmly. "Don't worry, you've done the right thing. And now that you've promised that you will help me, you can't break that oath, can you? Or does that mean you'll be the one to kill your spren instead of us? I'd ask it, but..." He glanced sidelong at the blue-skinned spren held roughly by Saun. "...Well, it's too late to consider the consequences, now, isn't it?"

Burning zinc, he slowly but steadily Rioted Tesh's sense of fear, specifically fear for others' safety, then gently Pulled on her willingness to obey. The same recipe for compliance he'd used on so many before. Then he held up the gleaming orb, which had gone ever so slightly dimmer. Detrare wondered at that, trying not to frown. So the Investiture within it could be converted to Stormlight, or perhaps used in the same way. Which meant that Teshani may have actually started healing herself. Curious, but ultimately irrelevant.

Detrare spoke into the gem, reaching right into Teshani's soul. "Now, tell me where you Knights are headquartered. What is your base of operations? Tell me everything."

**Tesh:** Oh, storms. What can I do? Give away everything, and have them live? Even then, there's a chance of them dying. This is all just spinning around me, slowly contracting, making it harder and harder to move. If I refuse, they'll all die. Even Ani. She's always been there, but they're threatening to kill her. This decision is mine to make. Narrowed down, the fate of Scadrial, and possibly even the cosmere as a whole, rests on my head. My smallest concern is that of my own life. I will almost undoubtedly lose it in this mess, but it's still a concern.

"Tell me everything." The words pierce my mind like a dagger. Simple, like the flat of the blade. Yet the edges are still deadly...just not to the person holding it. If I do tell him, there is a larger chance for the others' survival. _Tell me everything. _

Life before death. What would the others think, if they found that I had told our secrets? I would lose what little trust they have placed in me.

Strength before weakness. I am here; I can learn secrets. Blend in with the crowd.

I will die.

Journey before destination. My journey has not reached its end. I will keep trying until I draw my last breath. I will take on this burden, and…

_Just tell your secrets. What harm will it do? The others will survive… _

"No."

Before the man can even blink, I jump to my feet and punch him across the face.

I realize I have just made a terrible mistake.

**Quick:** Tarenwel leaned on the railing, looking at the trailing mists beneath him. The Cognitive Realm on Scadrial. He was home...sort of.

**Ene:** I poked my head around the corner, then stepped out onto the ship's deck. We were here. Finally. Though it had been long enough for me to learn the names and general temperaments of my traveling companions, I still didn't truly know their end goal. Something drove me to stay with them, however. I had no real reason for wanting to continue on with them, yet I felt compelled to. It was time to ask what they were doing here.

Seeing Tarenwel leaning against the railing of our vessel, I strode over. Dog was sleeping still, so I was alone. I reached the man. "So! Have you ever been here before?" He looked like he knew his way around.

**Tesh:** Mahshi stands behind the bowsprit, enjoying the quiet sloshing in the place of the clinking of glass beads. "We're coming, Tesh. Hold on. Keep going," he whispers. The trip was going by very slowly. They just couldn't move fast enough.

He looks down the side of the boat and sees Tarenwel. He's been standing there for quite some time, although now the young girl stands by him. Mahshi walks towards them, worn boots making a quiet yet hollow thud on the deck with every step, and leans against the side of the boat next to them. "We're almost there," he says.

**Meeker:** Ryker stood in the nest. He missed the feeling of wind in his hair. He had traded the lighthouse attendant and the captain for some infused spheres - he wouldn't be useless in a fight.

**Fire:** Detrare stumbled back, grunting not in pain, but in surprise. When it came to little things like a hit to the face, pain was virtually nonexistent. But this girl was definitely making him angry. "Saun!" he shouted. "Hurt the spren and and break the girl's knees!" To the spindly young man, he said, "Help him!" And to the shrewd old woman, "Keep torturing the spren!"

Saun slammed the butt of his machete into the side of the honorspren's head, then dropped it and the spike, pulling a small sledgehammer out of a pouch at his belt. He charged at Tesh, swinging the hammer at her legs and howling in delight. The other young man pulled out a small, thin dagger and leapt at her as well. The old woman picked up the machete and held it to the spren's neck, repeatedly slicing. Detrare didn't know whether or not it would do any damage, but he didn't care. He just stepped away from Tesh as quickly as he could before his minions tackled her down.

The young man lunged for Tesh's upper torso and tackled her into the chair, pinning her arms to her side. Saun smashed the hammer repeatedly into both her knees, grinning. The girl was disoriented and weak, and hadn't been able to move for over a week. She would be unable to defend herself from this.

Detrare simply watched, wiping the blood away that had briefly run out of his nose before he'd healed it. The girl would wish she hadn't asked for healed limbs. She would wish a lot of things hadn't happened. As Saun continued hammering at her legs, he bitterly said, "Tie her up when you're done." He'd wasted enough time with her. She would talk sooner or later. If his final threat didn't work, he would leave her and carry on his other, more important business. These Knights of the Cosmere were just a big nuisance in the grand scheme of things.

**Quick:** Two others approached Tarenwel on the deck. Making comments, conversation. He'd never been good with conversations; other people just seemed strange to him. "Good," he replied to Mahshi.

**Tesh:** "You're Terris, correct?" Mahshi asks.

**Quick:** "I suppose so," Tarenwel replied, staring down into the mist beneath.

**Meeker:** Ryker clambered down at the appearance of Tarenwel and Mahshi. He had had the opportunity to get to know them rather well on their journey to the Scadrial perpendicularity. He had grown a dark brown beard and mustache. He strode over to the pair, hand on his replacement sword that hung on his waist. "What is going on?"

**Ene:** They were ignoring me. Not something I was unused to, because of my age, but still. I let out an exasperated breath, not really blaming them - Tarenwel was obviously not interested in talking. Ryker moved in our direction. "Hello," I greeted him.

**Meeker:** Ryker nodded in her direction, acknowledging her with a smile. "Lovely, er, morning? Eh," he said.

**Tesh:** "Technically, it would be midday," Mahshi says, grinning slightly. He catches a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to face the young girl. "What is your name? Sorry I have to ask again."

**Meeker:** Ryker sucked in a little Stormlight and Lashed himself upward enough to make himself weightless, then walked over to Mahshi and Lashed him abruptly to the side - just enough to make him panic. "That's for correcting me," he said with a wide smile.

**Tesh:** Mahshi quickly burns pewter as a reflex. He starts to slowly slide down the deck. "I should probably start getting used to that," Mahshi says after reorienting himself. "Just out of curiosity, Windrunner or Skybreaker? And could you please fix gravity?"

**Ene:** I watched the men, amused, as Mahshi started floating away. "It's Diona. Diona Rokni. So, what's your goal? I've been considering joining you."

**Meeker:** "Skybreaker, luckily for you. I would have stuck you to the deck and let the ship sail away. We follow the law..." he began.

**Mist:** They all spoke to each other by the rail. They talked, smiled, joked, Lashed each other, and looked happy.

Dawn was sick of it. Sick of the looks. Sick of being dragged along as so much extra baggage, hated, despised under wraps despite all outward appearances. The girl was the only one who outwardly hated him, and he appreciated her for that. At least she was honest. He deserved it all, but that didn't make it okay. He _hated_ it.

Something nudged him from within, a desire to burn, destroy, cut, kill. Rid the world of all else, and if that failed, himself. It wouldn't do anything anyway. Dawn had never made a difference. He, just like the world, was worthless. Dawn drew his cold steel knife.

Reality broke over his shoulders like a wave, and he surfaced, gasping for air. Had he really just considered murder and suicide? What had come over him? A deeper part of his brain scared him, rationalizing his moment of darkness. He was a murderer, ravaged by the world. What had he done to change it?

**Meeker:** Ryker stops, looking at Dawn. "Excuse me." He walks to where Dawn is standing. "Is everything okay? You seemed _dark_."

**Mist:** Ryker. The man Dawn had comforted in his weakness, and who had tried to comfort Dawn. Always butting in, trying to fix Dawn. _Don't forget what you've done. You bury it in hate, but it will always be there._

"I'm fine," Dawn insisted, brushing Ryker off and grabbing his stuff. Nothing he did mattered. Ryker could stop pressuring Dawn and storm off, allowing Dawn to brood. It didn't matter.

An Aviar flapped after him, air almost physically lighter around it. Dawn's heart melted a little as Thene perched on his shoulder and nibbled his ear in a way that unmistakably conveyed concern. Dawn stroked the bird. Thene was the last connection to his father, as he was originally his father's Aviar. It was fitting that the bird accompanied him to Scadrial, after his father had tried so hard to return.

Dawn strode down the gangplank to the harsh obsidian ground. He had finally made it. He doubted he would live to return.

**Tesh:** Mahshi lets out a sigh of relief, then makes his way down the gangplank after Dawn. "Finally!"

**Meeker:** Ryker sighed. He would keep trying. People always gave into persistence. He returned to Diona and the rest of the group as they left the ship.

**Ene:** "So," I said to Ryker. "What are you guys doing here?"

**Meeker:** "Bringing my daughter to her real home," he says, picking up Skylar.

**Ene:** I narrow my eyes. "What about the others? They seem to have an end goal in mind."

**Meeker:** "I do not know. I'd ask them. If they need my help I'll gladly assist as long as my daughter is safe."

**Ene:** I nod in thanks, then stroll over to Mahshi. "So what are you guys doing here anyway?"

**Tesh:** "Several things." Silence. "The Steel Inquisition is returning. And they have my sister." Mahshi falls silent, a seems to grow distant. A troubled look passes over his face.

**Ene:** My eyes widen. _The Inquisition? _"I'm...sorry." I make a split-second decision. "May I help you?"

**Tesh:** Mahshi glances at Diona. He is basically the senior among them, and he knows nothing. "I can't say no," he says slowly. "But once we find Tesh, it's up to her."

**Meeker:** Ryker remains quiet. He would not volunteer if his daughter needed him. But if they asked for, _needed, _his help...then he would. Only to make his daughter's life safer.

**Ink:** Tin is extremely helpful when you want to hear but not be heard. I stop burning it - it's time to show myself. I walk up on deck and see the ragtag group of strangers who came with me. It's nice to know our interests align.

Hand on my pistol just in case, I clear my throat, wondering how they will respond.

**Ene:** I nod at Mahshi. "Of course. You're the boss."

I hear someone _ahem_ing and turn warily. I stop storing my health, just in case.

**Quick:** Tarenwel cocked his head and turned it slightly, just enough to spot the man on the deck with a hand on his hip. A pistol? "Well, hello, stranger," he comments casually.

**Ink:** A few of them turn to me, one of them a young girl; about the age that...no, she's dead...but this girl looks so much like her…

_Seven years ago, the Roughs _

Running through the old ghost town, it's just her and me, having a good time. I hear a scream a good distance behind me; shouldn't she be _right_ behind me? It isn't like Macy to scream, either - she's normally quiet; being a Soother probably helps. I turn and see a being only spoken of in myths, a being I thought was long extinct. Those not-eyes, seeing nothing yet everything. Those spikes in the body, keeping it together but tearing it apart.

And that maniac grin as it runs a spike through the one person I knew in my life. I run to stop it, but I'm too late. The Inquisitor puts the spike into a jar of blood and dashes away. I run to the form of my sister, the only person I ever cared about. "No! You can't die on me! We haven't even spent the aluminum we found!" This can't be the end. Not this soon.

She looks me in the eyes one last time and I see not fear or hate, but peace. "The sun sets, but it will always rise. My sun has set, but yours, Quell, has yet to rise."

The light fades from her eyes, and I know she is gone. It feels as if my heart is metal; it has been broken and melted down. I stand, and that molten metal cools and hardens into something sharper, something stronger, something that won't let anything close. I will have my revenge. They will pay for what they did. They took away the one thing I loved. I won't let it happen again to anyone.

I run, not anywhere I've been but away from the Great Basin, into the unknown, to hopefully find something to help me fight the evil in this world.

I'm on the floor. When did I get here? Oh, right...that girl looks remarkably like Macy. Hopefully the ghosts of the past won't continue to haunt me. That felt like a hammer to the chest.

**Ene:** I kneel at the new man's side. "Hey, are you okay?" I ask urgently, worried.

**Quick:** The new man collapsed to the deck suddenly. Tarenwel turned his head to look at him more fully, then turned to face him completely once he saw the man really had collapsed. "What happened?" he asked.

**Ene:** "I don't know. He just collapsed," I said, worried.

**Ink:** I notice the girl and the man standing above me. I put up a bendalloy bubble with us three in it and quickly get up, brass lowering their concern. "Nothing, just...ghosts of the past. If anyone asks, I tripped. I can't be seen as weak again; Ruin, I can't _be_ weak again. Not after her..."

**Ene:** _Okay. That sounds reasonable. He's fine...wait..._What was I saying? Oh, Harmony. Emotional Allomancy. But I didn't blame the man - being a Rioter myself, I knew the call of just letting others slide off you and leave you alone when needed. Fortunately I recognized it when I saw...er, felt it.

I dipped into my health just the tiniest bit, to spruce myself up. I had enough to spare. "Whoever you are," I said, leaning down again to meet the stranger's eyes, "I suggest you keep your Soothing away from me. I tend to notice it and start hugging people. With daggers. In the night." I shrugged off the slight cringiness of the phrase and hoped the others had heard it as threatening or something. "But I'll say that you tripped, if you wish."

With that, I stalked off. _I sure am leaving fantastic impressions on people here..._ah well, nothing to be done about it. I went to stand next to Tarenwel grumpily.

**Quick:** The girl blurred for a second, turning and walking to stand by Tarenwel. He blinked. Bendalloy?

**Ene:** "So," I said to Tarenwel. "How did _you_ join this group?"

**Quick:** "Hm?" he replied absentmindedly. "Oh. I was chasing someone."

**Ene:** "Who?"

**Quick:** Tarenwel shrugged. "I don't know."

**Ene:** "How can you chase someone if you don't know who they are?" I asked, confused.

**Quick:** "My job isn't about who someone is, it's about what they've done," Tarenwel replies.

**Ene:** "And...what did they do?"

**Quick:** "He murdered a few people by stabbing them through their chests," Tarenwel responds.

**Ene:** "Oh!" I cover my mouth. "That's awful. But why are you chasing him?"

**Quick:** Tarenwel shrugs. "It's my job, isn't it?" He looks to the girl. "I suppose you don't know that. I'm a lawman in the Roughs."

**Ink:** _So, _I think to myself, _the girl is a Rioter, and judging by the gold bands, a Bloodmaker. She probably thinks I'm a Soother, and that other guy probably thinks I'm a Slider. Hopefully none of them realize I'm a Mistborn. _I hear 'stabbing' and 'chest' and ask them: "Did the person you were chasing happen to use a spike, or have spikes in them?"

**Quick:** "I never got a good look at him," Tarenwel replies, noticing the man has gotten up rather quickly. _Definitely a Slider. _

**Ink:** I see the gangway is out, so I walk past the others into the main Cognitive Realm of the planet I call home. If these people are who they say they are, then we're in the right place to stop the Inquisitors and free this Tesh. I just hope I don't have to go back to the place where _she_ died.

**Tesh:** _Pain. _It streaks through me. It's like my soul is cracking. Why my legs? I attempt to punch my attacker, but my arms are pinned to my side.

I am going to die. I meet the thought head on. Embrace it. I'll leave all pain and worry behind, see what really exists in the Beyond. If anything. Maybe I will go to the Tranquiline Halls. Or would I go to Scadrial's version of them? All these thoughts flash through my head in a second. The hammer falls again.

My knees are shattered. It is as if my legs are on fire. And yet he continues to swing the hammer. "Stop," I croak. I can't die...I can't...I can't leave Mahshi, after only being back with him for a few weeks. I can't leave Ani. Ani.

My spren is gone.

_Ani? _I send the thought towards her.

_Tesh, don't use the man's Stormlight. It's corrupted. I'm going to try to get away. Hang on. _Hang on.

"Stop!" I yell, this time a cry of terror. For what can a spren do? Who would she get?

There's no one here.

**Ene:** Everyone else is leaving, and why wait around? I return to slowly filling my goldminds, focusing on my emergency ones. Those are far too empty for my liking. I fill goldminds almost constantly these days, letting them drain me just a small amount unless I'm sleeping or have literally nothing else to do. It makes my joints ache, and if I fill them enough I'll get sick - but for now, I'm fine.

I step after the group that's leaving, finally deciding that I will help them to the best of my abilities. All of them. _I swore I would help. Always. The last time I didn't..._Well. It's not Honor-sanctioned or anything, but my pride is on the line here. Besides, it's common courtesy. Right? I catch up to the others.

**Quick:** Tarenwel walks off the ship and into the dock. "So," he asks the others. "Just how are we going to get back to the Physical Realm?"

**Fire:** "Well, since she asked," Detrare said, waving his hand. When they didn't stop holding Tesh down and beating her quite yet, Detrare said a little louder, "Stop." He Pulled on their senses of shame and subservience. They finally did, both fidgeting a bit. They were itching to keep torturing her. They had great Passion, which every so often had to be bridled in cases such as this. Detrare understood their hesitance to stop. He knew they would obey; their Devotion was unquestionable.

"Chain her back to the chair," he ordered. As they lifted Tesh onto the chair and wrapped the chains around her again, Detrare looked down at her, shaking his head and clicking his tongue like a disappointed parent. "I should have known you'd be this way. So focused on your sense of Honor that you ignore other aspects of God's will that must also come to pass. Aspects that we are bringing to pass. So I am giving you one last chance to tell me what I want to know. Because I assure you now, if you do not tell me, blood will be shed. And it will be on your head. Speak now, or let another suffer the consequence."

He pointed to the honorspren, which looked like it was struggling. Apparently, the knife wasn't affecting it with any sort of bodily harm, but the old woman was still gladly whacking and slicing it and it was still writhing. It seemed that it was in pain. Let the Radiant girl think so. Detrare raised his eyebrows at Tesh, as if to say, _Will you risk the life of your own spren? _

**Ink:** I take out one of my ettmetal devices and start to tinker with it. Which one was this again? Ah, cadmium. Perfect for getaways when I activate it. I could probably lend it to at least one of the others; bendalloy ones worked well too, for one-on-one anything. I still need to perfect the bullets though.

I walk over to the Rioter girl. "So. Why did you join this group?" I ask.

**Ene:** I glance over, somewhat surprised. "I...don't know. I just felt that I should. I still don't even know the plan."

**Ink:** I pull out an ettmetal piece I haven't charged and kept separate from the others. "Could you try to store health near this? I want to test out some Feruchemical properties of this." I hand her the piece.

**Ene:** I shrug. _Why not?_ I store some health while holding his whatever-it-is.

**Tesh:** Mahshi stands a few feet away, bag over his shoulder. "We need to get going," he says.

**Ink:** I turn to the man a few paces behind me. "Oh, I didn't see you there. I'm just running a few ettmetal tests." I burn a bit of iron, noticing two faint lines pointing to his arms and stronger ones to something on his belt. A Misting? "You're a Feruchemist, correct? Could you store your attribute while holding this one?" I hand him a second piece.

**Tesh:** "Oh, um, sure," Mahshi says, taking the piece of metal. "Why?" He starts storing speed.

**Ink:** I take a step, but it feels slower than it should. "Ah...I wanted some tests on this. Apparently you storing it also takes your attribute from nearby sources too. Steelrunner, huh? This could be very interesting. Thank you, and for your time have a cadmium getaway bomb - just flip the switch and you have five seconds before it activates. It's of my own design, but it took a lot of time to get it perfect." I hand him a small, pear-shaped silver sphere, with a switch indented in the side. "They're expensive, cost me a couple bars of aluminum, so use it only in emergencies."

I turn back to Diona, feeling a bit sick. "Okay. stop! Storing Feruchemy does the same to those around it...that's what I needed to know. That's ettmetal, by the way, don't get it wet or eat it. You don't what to know what happened to the last guy who did that." I write down some notes and put them inside my coat pocket. I give her a cadmium bomb too. The more the better.

**Ene:** I take his bomb eagerly. You can never have enough bombs. I also stop storing health.

**Meeker:** Ryker lands in the middle of the group. "It took a while to catch up to all of you. I'm able to help you in every capacity granted to me now."

**Ene:** I glance over at Ryker, startled.

**Meeker:** "Hello," Ryker greets her.

**Ink:** I spin toward the man who just fell from the sky, pistol in hand - a Coinshot? No, he didn't drop anything. And what's that mist streaming off him?

**Meeker:** By instinct, Ryker attempts to Push the pistol from the man's hand.

**Quick:** Tarenwel turned to Ryker. "Oh, you again."

**Ene:** Ryker and Quell are glaring at each other, and I wince. "Hey, there's no need for a fight! We're all strangers who don't want to kill each other here, right?"

**Meeker:** "You don't seem very happy," Ryker noted.

**Ink:** My pistol jerks back a bit, but I hold firm. A Coinshot then, but he landed with no metal. Maybe a Crasher. "Don't even try, Coinshot."

**Meeker:** Ryker cocks an eyebrow, intentionally ignoring the man with the pistol. "Well, can someone catch me up on where we are going?"

**Quick:** "We're trying to find the nearest perpendicularity," Tarenwel replied.

**Ink:** I put my gun away. "Do any of you know where it is? I rusting don't."

**Meeker:** "Lucky for you all, I do. All of you are going the wrong way; I just went through it and back."

**Quick:** Tarenwel shrugged. "Mahshi probably knows one either way."

**Meeker:** "If you don't need my help, I'll be going; I had the impression you needed me."

**Ink:** I am still a bit skeptical of the newcomer, but it seems he's our best hope of getting to the Physical Realm. "About time _someone_ knows the way," I mutter. Then I look at him. "I guess we could use your help. What do you call yourself, stranger?"

**Quick:** Tarenwel shrugged again. "_Do _you know where a perpendicularity is, Mahshi?"

**Meeker:** "If I can help you, speak up now or hold your peace. I do not like my time wasted."

**Ink:** Rust and Ruin, I'm ready to get out of here, but the others are waiting for the Steelrunner to reply. I don't fully trust this man either, but it's better than nothing.

**Cole:** Cole bounds through the mist, feeling as free as his mistcloak in the wind. Oftentimes he takes Steelpushing for granted, but whenever he returns to Scadrial, the feeling of the mist curling around him reminds him of how special it is.

_Of course, it helps that that metal is everywhere on Scadrial,_ he thinks to himself with a slight grin before rapidly changing direction by pulling on one of the numerous skyscrapers. Elendel's a paradise for Coinshots and Lurchers, and soaring through it is one of the few pleasures Cole still allows himself. With a mighty Push with four anchors, he threw himself above the mist and glimpsed the Ascendant's Fields.

**Tesh:** "I know where the general location of one is, but not the precise place," Mahshi says, glancing at Ryker. "Some help would be greatly appreciated."

**Meeker:** "Thank you for being sensible. As you're friends, I'd hoped you wouldn't turn me away."

**Ink:** "I wouldn't," I say. _Unless you were an enemy, or these people didn't trust you. _

**Ene:** "So, where _is_ the transfer point?" I ask hopefully. It will be nice to stand on solid ground again.

**Meeker:** "Well, ironically, the exact opposite direction you were traveling. Perhaps you intended to go to a different perpendicularity? Where is your destination?" Ryker says. He looks to the man who pointed a gun at him. "I can guarantee I am the most dangerous thing here within a few miles."

**Ene:** "I don't know if anyone else wanted to go somewhere besides the perpendicularity, but I have no reason to. So knowing where it is would really help."

**Ink:** I look at the newcomer. "I think you underestimate me, Coinshot." Though that weird mist might be hinting at something else going on. Maybe another kind of Investiture?

**Ene:** _Aaaaand fantastic. They're going to have an intimidation contest,_ I think.

**Meeker:** "Perhaps. I am hardly wrong. There's only one way to see..." Ryker says.

**Quick:** Tarenwel laughs. "Who knows, perhaps there's a mob of Inquisitors waiting nearby to pounce out and murder us all."

**Ene:** "That...would be bad," I mutter.

**Quick:** "Almost like having two allies _murder _each other," Tarenwel comments bitingly.

**Mist:** "Shut. Up," Dawn hisses, drawing his knife and stepping between the feuding men. "If we fight each other, we all die." He can't deal with this right now.

**Tesh:** Mahshi walks off a little ways without saying anything. What would it accomplish? Tesh is in danger, and they are _so close. _But still…_No, _Mahshi thinks. He starts walking in the general direction of the perpendicularity that he first came to Scadrial using.

**Ink:** "They're right, let's not waste time," I say to the newcomer. Mahshi starts walking off. "Where are you going?"

**Tesh:** Mahshi stops and turns. "To save my sister." He continues walking away.

**Ink:** I call after him, "Are you not listening? This guy -" I glare at the newcomer "- says he knows a faster way."

**Tesh:** Mahshi spins and faces the group. "You haven't felt it, have you?" he yells. "I thought both my sisters were gone, dead! I _saw one die! She was only eight! _I thought Tesh was gone too! Then a few months ago, I found her! I saved her life, and I was happier than I had been in _years. _I had my family back! Not all of it, but more than I'd had in seven years! Now she's gone! Dead, for all I know. And all you're doing about it is fighting, when she could be _dying! _

I'm going to do something about it, even if all of you won't. She's all I have left in this life! You just don't know! You've never felt that loss, that fear for the worst, the loneliness, the sorrow. It was going away when I found her! It was leaving, fading, for the first time in so long, and now it's coming back. I can't bear losing her a second time! I just can't!" Mahshi steps back and sits on a rock, burying his face in his hands to hide the tears. He's shaking, breathing heavily.

_I can't go through that again. Not a second time. _

**Mist:** So he felt it too. The gnawing, the creeping darkness dragging you down and slowly tearing you apart. Dawn couldn't help but agree with the Terrisman. The lawman needed to stop.

Dawn placed a hand on Mahshi's shoulder and steered the man in the right direction. "I understand. Storms, I do. But if we fight, we stand no chance in rescuing your sister." Keep moving. Keep doing. If he seemed strong, they wouldn't laugh. They wouldn't mock him. He could hide from the pain. Hide away.

**Tesh:** Mahshi glances up at Dawn. "What will understanding do to help? We're alone in this universe, in our own ways. No one truly understands. You're right in one thing - we do need to do something. I just need a second." Mahshi sets his head in his hands again. _Hurry. She needs you. All of you. By waiting, you are not only putting her life at stake, but the cosmere as a whole. _Mahshi stands and uses the sleeve of his coat, which he made in the traditional Roughs style, to dry his eyes. "Let's go," he whispers.

**Ink:** The words the man had shouted at me shake me. He's lost loved ones too, and is worried about the only one he can rescue. Macy is beyond my help, but if she were in that situation, I would very well risk it all to rescue her. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't know what you were going through. I lost a loved one too; I'll try not to bicker. We have more pressing matters - namely your sister."

As I say this, I burn zinc, targeting his calm. The Rioter girl probably knows what I'm doing, but she'll get it. Emotional Allomancy should be used to help those who need it. I do feel a bit guilty, but this is for the best. I can't claim to begin to understand these people, but I know I need their help as much as they probably need mine.

**Tesh:** Mahshi feels himself calm slightly as he begins to walk behind the rest of the group. He can tell someone's using emotional Allomancy in him, but for the first time in his life, he does nothing about it.

**Quick:** "So, can we all agree not to have any more random emotional outbursts?" Tarenwel asks. Before anyone can answer, he continues, "No? Fine. Let's go accomplish _something _before we die of old age."

**Meeker:** "You going to follow me or Mahshi to the perpendicularity?"

**Quick:** "Whoever knows the closer one," Tarenwel replies.

**Ink:** I don't trust the Coinshot, and I know Mahshi better. "I'm going with Mahshi."

**Tesh:** "I only know the general location," he says. "So this might not work as well as we want. But I'll do the best I can."

**Meeker:** "Well, there're two; both have nearly been destroyed. One is where the Pits of Hathsin used to be and the other was the old Well of Ascension. My guess is that you were heading to the Pits - dangerous. The Well is safer."

**Tesh:** "I'm not sure. I really don't know where I'm going," Mahshi says with a sigh.

**Meeker:** "Would you like my help getting to the Physical Realm?"

**Ene:** As the others talk, I fall into step with Quell. Mahshi has settled down, and I know it's his doing. But he's right to do it. This group will tear itself apart if someone doesn't do something.

Quietly, I begin to Riot the others in the group around me, sending out small but general waves. They won't do too much, and Dawn won't be able to feel them at all, but at least it's _something_. Doing something to help is always better than nothing.

**Ink:** The Well of Ascension. It sounds familiar, but I don't know why. Maybe it's an old legend I heard, but I pay more attention to the facts then the myths.

I start to perk up. The Rioter girl, most likely. It feels nice, so I whisper a "thank you". Sometimes, I think it would be nice to be able to Riot or Soothe myself as well as others.

**Ene:** "Anytime," I whisper back.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix Elsecalls to the Well of Ascension from his lab in Southern Scadrial. The only thing left to do is explore the perpendicularities for any clues and then see if he could pick up a trail that either the New Inquisition member or Tesh had left behind. Everything else led to a dead end. He'd previously gone to check the perpendicularity at the long-forgotten Pits of Hathsin, but it was completely blocked off, so he doubted that anyone had used that way to cross over.

He did find a cave miles deep into the Pits, however, that didn't seem to have been previously explored, where he'd found some veins of atium. An outdated metal, but perhaps it could serve some function. Phoenix had extracted what he could and kept a mental note of its location, wondering how no one had discovered this before. Elsecalling _did_ have its advantages, and Scadrial's magic didn't have anything comparable.

This other perpendicularity at Phoenix's present location _was_ accessible, at least to those who knew how to get here, but the Well was different now; powered by a different sort of Investiture than before - when it was primarily Preservation's essence. Phoenix felt in balance here, almost as if he was being Soothed. He took care to stay in the shadows in case anyone might be coming through the portal.

**Shadow:** Time. How long has it been?

Gaize floats next to me, hovering above the misty landscape of Scadrial's Cognitive Realm. Already I miss the brief connection - or was it Connection? - I had to the Physical Realm through the Stormfather's influence. I spent too much of that Investiture on my trip here. It was necessary, of course. I could never have left that world if I hadn't corrupted the Investiture and made it my own. But the loss is a heavy one.

How long has it been?

The two remaining koloss returned to their master after they destroyed the town. The New Inquisition wasn't happy we destroyed so many of its members. How did such men and women bind themselves to spren? I thought there were rules governing such things. Perhaps the nature of the Surges has changed since the death of Tanavast. Many things have changed.

How long?

We studied their base of operations. There were many protections, both physical and cognitive. I do not think our Knights of the Cosmere will be able to infiltrate it easily. I barely escaped without alerting anyone of my presence. Even if we could get inside, it would take a number twice what we have currently to overpower them.

How long?

I sensed Tesh and her spren, but I couldn't reach them. I couldn't help them. Just as I couldn't help the village. Just as I couldn't help my father. Just as...just as…How long has it been? How long? How long? How -?

Gaize hums a warning to me. I jolt out of my reverie just in time to see a figure approaching Harmony's perpendicularity. "Phoenix," I mumble. Then I gather my will and call his name. "Phoenix!"

**Ink:** It looks like we're here, a bright light shining from something that looks like a pool. It looks familiar...as we step through, I recognize it.

I collapse, exhausted, in the middle of the mists. There's nothing I can do for her, but I could protect others from the same fate. _Survivor, _I pray, _help me. I need something to fight them. _As if an answer to my prayer, the mists ahead swirl and I get a glimpse of ruins.

I walk toward them on energy I didn't think I still had. There in the ruins is a pool, barely filled with something that isn't quite liquid or gas. I decide that it probably isn't safe, by the way it's moving. But next to it is a bead of metal. Could this be the fabled lerasium? _One way to find out_, I think.

I take it and do the only logical thing. I eat it.

Suddenly, I became aware of powers inside of me. It worked! I'm a Mistborn! I walk outside, what must be pewter giving me endurance. I drop one of the coins I always keep with me and Push off of it, flying into the night. From then on, I would protect others, and not let them be harmed.

It's a misty night. Just like the night I became Mistborn. "I need to do something," I tell the others. _It's been too long, old friend._ I take out my gun and shoot a normal round into the ground. Then I Push off, flying into the night. I come back a few minutes later; I can't abandon them, but I needed this. There was something about flying through the mists, untethered, that helped me focus and think clearly.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix perks up as he hears a voice calling his name. _Is that Wilberforce?_ Phoenix did remember that they had agreed meet up again on Scadrial, but he had completely forgotten about that with the fuss over the dead Inquisitor and at his failed attempt to glean information. To be on the safe side, he hadn't even gotten close to the Well upon entering Scadrial, as to avoid unwelcome company. _Good thing I thought to investigate the perpendicularities after all, I suppose_, Phoenix thinks.

"Wilberforce, is that you? It's been a while, my good friend. However, I sense that something has _changed_ about you. What have you been up to?"

**Shadow:** "I've changed, slightly," I admit, nervously slipping into less formal language. "I couldn't leave Roshar without converting my Investiture into something other than Honor." I walk to where he is. "I saw where they took Tesh, Phoenix. It will not be a simple matter to recover her. I have lost my Connection to the Physical Realm, so there is little I can do to help."

Gaize sends a thought to me. _We have the souls of your ship and fog bank yet. And there is always your knife… _

"What have you managed to learn?" I ask Phoenix, ignoring my friend.

**Cole:** Cole lightly fell to the ground. With the abundance of metal in Elendel, landing didn't even require tossing a coin. Anchors existed everywhere. He pulled a hefty pouch out of his mistcloak. Inside were several rings, mostly gold and steel, and several tiny treasures. Purposeful steps brought him to the wooden door of a normal, boring house.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix replied, "You have seen their base? Please point me in the right direction, that was one of the pieces of information I had hoped to glean from our investigation, but alas it has proved fruitless. Please show me where it is, and describe its defenses if you can. I assume you will want to come when we assault the base, right? I have seen what you can do, and we could really use your help, Physical Connection or no.

As for us, we haven't been able to learn much. Upon a thorough inspection of the Inquisitor, it appears as if some manipulation of Ruin is at hand, but that makes no sense, unless some Splinter of Ruin has survived somehow over the years, evading Harmony's uniting of Preservation and Ruin all those years ago. What's also very curious is that I also discovered hints of other Intents during my investigation that do _not_ point to Ruin, but rather Odium and what appears to be Devotion. What do you make of that?"

**Ink:** Back in the Cognitive Realm, I hear voices in the distance, too faint to make out, so I swallow some tin and overhear them. "- me in the right direction..."

I relay what I hear to the group. Maybe it surprises them that I'm Mistborn, but they should have guessed by now from the quick flight. I can still feel the rush. Few things can or ever will compare. "Do you think they're friendly?" I ask.

**Meeker:** Hearing the Mistborn relay information he overheard piqued Ryker's interest. "I will investigate. I will not object to any help." With that he started to head over.

**Shadow:** "That makes a fair bit of sense, honestly." I shake my head. "This man, whoever he is, released koloss on a small village and decimated it. He controlled them through some form of power with which I am not familiar. Devotion would make sense, but it had so much more than that. A kind of control beyond simple Devotion. It was passionate, and I almost lost myself in it when I entered their base. The base is...heavily fortified. I do not believe anything on either the Physical or Cognitive Realm could get to Tesh without confronting several traps and guards. We'll need more than a Shadow and a man - powerful though you may be - to beat them."

**Tesh:** I detach from reality. The physical pain becomes a distant thing, the yelling even more so. I go limp. I can't fight these people, these monsters. The quiet thud of the hammer on my knees, the dull flash of pain, then back to an even more distant pulsing. I begin to drift. The blood flowing from my knees pours over the floor. So much blood...red everywhere...I begin to go lightheaded. Blood loss. Not good.

I'm beginning to fade. I can feel life slowly ebbing away, yet the hammer keeps coming. Mahshi...I was reunited with him for such a short amount of time, and now I'm leaving him for a second time.

But...the Knights will...do something...help him live a real life on Roshar? Maybe...My little blip on the cosmere is beginning to fade. I'm being erased.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix frowns. "Passion...yes, that could be one of many interpretations of Odium's Intent. Many people assume it is simply malicious hatred, but I believe it is much more complex than that. So, a group that has pure Devotion and Passion to their cause, and that cause is likely somewhat related to Ruin. This is not good.

I would not suggest we tackle this endeavor just as you and I. We have Cole, Sam and I, who eagerly await breaking this organization at its core and negate the impact they are having on the cosmere. The fortress _must_ be destroyed and its leader captured or killed, along with all the new Inquisitors."

**Shadow:** I look at Gaize. He sits with wings folded upon the foggy ground, and his eyes spin in a twisting pattern, one I recognize all too well. Concern.

"I often wondered if my actions were enough. With all that I know, I somehow feel I owe it to the cosmere to share it or use it." I am speaking with Phoenix, but my remarks are meant for my friend. "It will be dangerous, even with support. Yes, let us find the others. Were they heading here with you? Did you have a rendezvous point?"

**Ink:** So, these people were also trying to free Tesh. We would need plenty of reinforcements if this fortress was half as well defended as I had heard. "Do any of you know Cole or Sam? It sounds like they and someone else will attack the fort," I tell our group.

**Meeker:** "Well, what is our game plan if they are lying?" Ryker asks.

**Ink:** "Good question. Maybe watch first, and intervene if needed?" I tell Ryker.

**Meeker:** "Seems like a plan," he says as he summons a Shardblade.

**Tesh:** "Cole and Sam are members of the Vindicators. That's ask I knew concerning them," Mahshi says, walking alongside the rest of the group.

**Meeker:** "So how we are fighting?"

**Mist:** _They're probably traitors,_ Dawn thought. _They all want to kill us._ What were the odds of success anyway? Far too low. Why was Dawn even here? What did he have at stake? These people weren't his friends; rather, they hated him. Why? None of it mattered anyway. What had Dawn _ever_ accomplished?

Dawn idled, examining his knife with downcast eyes. Something caught a glint of light that he had not seen before, a line running down the cold, steel blade. A thin line, faintly lighter in color. _Aluminum, maybe,_ Dawn thought. That was strange, as a line of differing metal would only weaken the blade.

But, again, what did it matter? He would likely die soon anyway, fighting foes far stronger than he. And for what reason? To save somebody he didn't even know, to support a cause she didn't believe in? _Or_, a hidden part of him whispered, _to kill the one who saw what I did? _

None were good reasons. None of them mattered. They would all die. Nothing mattered.


	11. How To Fulfill Your Dreams

**Ink:** I watch as Ryker holds out his hand and a gleaming sword falls into it. It must be another form of Investiture, or a side effect of it. Rosharan maybe, or Selish; I know little about either world. Dawn seems depressed and keeps studying his knife. It's Allomantically inert, as far as I can tell. He's been quiet this entire time, and I can't get a good read on him. I take a vial of metals and swallow them, burning bronze to see if any of the people we're listening to are Allomancers. I can't feel any pulses from them.

**Ap:** Alonze Ferro, Lurcher, Skimmer, Awakener, crested the hill separating him from the perpendicularity. The Well of Ascension. The Shardpool of Preservation, the god long since gone. _Back to Nalthis I go..._

He burned iron lightly, feeling the familiar warmth return to his abdomen. Blue lines immediately shot out from his chest, going toward the well. Al froze as he looked down the long, straight string, the string that led to..._people? At the Well?_ Al's hand shot to his side, placing his hand on the holster of his revolver, ducking behind the hill.

**Ink:** I notice some blue lines moving on the hill opposite the other people. Good thing I never stopped burning that iron. As I turn I see a figure on the hill; it seems he saw us, but ducks behind the hill before I get a good look at him. I pull out my revolver, ready for an attack.

**Ap:** Cocking his aluminum gun, Al cautiously crawls to the top of the hill. He remains barely high enough up on the ridge to look through his sights. The group seemed to consist of six people. A Terrisman, a woman, and four other men. One of the men also happened to have a gun aimed at Al. _Rusts… _

**Quick:** Tarenwel looks to where Quell is pointing his gun. A man peeks over a hill in that direction, staring at them through the sights on his gun. "DOWN!" Tarenwel roars, tapping a bit of speed and tackling Diona to the ground.

**Mist:** Dawn looks up slowly, filling speed to give an excuse for his lethargy. The man has a gun. _Fine, then, _Dawn thought. Dying wouldn't change anything. He would die anyway. They would all fail. What mattered? Why care? What mark had Dawn ever made, anyway?

**Meeker:** Ryker floated into the air and causally glided over. "Peace! We mean you no harm!"

**Ink:** The man's gun is aluminum; I can't see blue lines, but he has a vial of metals. If you're gonna carry a gun made of aluminum, you should really not carry metals. Ryker floats up. Wait, floats? No coin...oh, must be connected with the glowing gems he carries and the sword. Those are pretty sweet powers, if you ask me. Almost as cool as being a Mistborn.

**Quick:** Tarenwel watched as Ryker flew toward their opponent, glowing with light. He must be one of the things Tesh was. A...Wallrunner? No, Windrunner. That was it. He rose into a crouch, ready to run the instant the man indicated he was hostile. Though, if he were to attack, he would probably shoot for Ryker…

**Mist:** Rwendeh pecked at Dawn's shoulder, sensing his apathy. Dawn ignored it. It didn't matter. Nothing would change anything. Nothing ever had. _Why fight? _Dawn wondered. _Why live?_

**Ap:** Al examined the group of people, which promptly dropped to the ground. _Ruin. Ruin, Ruin, Ruin! _Al couldn't hold his own in a fight against six people! He held his gun straight, scrambling backward. He would've taken a shot, if not for the rusting _flying_ man! What was he? A Coinshot?

Al heard something coming from the glowing figure. "Peace! We mean you no harm!" He was hesitant to put his gun down just yet, though. Using a single hand, he touched his mistcoat, drawing color from his black shirt. "Protect me!"

His Command came out more panicked than he intended. He felt his coat harden around him, taking roughly sixty Breaths to do the job. Bracing himself, he steadied his sights on the flying man, struggling to stay calm.

**Meeker:** Ryker dismissed his sword. "Look. We were startled at your appearance; that's all. My name is Ryker Sinclair. We mean you no harm."

**Ap:** Alonze cautiously lowered his gun, but kept it ready. "Alonze Ferro. Stay back."

**Meeker:** "You are welcome to join our group. Scadrial can be a dangerous place. Friends are a nice accessory to have." Ryker drops to the ground to conserve Stormlight.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix turns around abruptly, having heard the commotion and detected life from above, and immediately begins flaring tin. "Wilberforce, it seems we have company. They must have a coppercloud up too, but now they are making a ruckus! Come with me."

Phoenix and Wilberforce Elsecall away to a small crevice high into the wall where Phoenix could maintain a view on the others. He did not want to be in the middle of what was going on at the moment, and it appeared as if multiple people had Investiture. Phoenix scanned the group, eyes resting on the lawman and Tesh's brother, Mahshi. "Oh. It's them, Tesh's Surgefinder entourage. They must be just arriving - how inefficient."

Phoenix notes that the violence had died down a bit, but cautious as ever, continues watching for further signs of reduced tensions.

**Ap:** Ryker dropped to the ground and his glow died down a little. _Friends? He's rather abrupt._ Al holstered his gun and reluctantly offered his hand forward in greeting. "What do you need?" Al assumed that if these people were at the Well, they were either very dangerous, or, well, even more dangerous. Better to have them as allies than enemies.

**Meeker:** Ryker takes his hand, shaking it, then lets go and tenses. "Something's not right." He turns back to the group, downing a vial of steel, and slips a coin into his palm. He summons his Shardblade. "I trust you to not have led us into a trap," he says to Alonze, smiling and winking.

**Ap:** _An Allomancer and a bird? And what about that sword?_ "I think I'm the one in the trap here. I was just on my way to..." _No, probably shouldn't tell him that yet..._Alonze quickly scanned the coin. Nothing special about it. "...so what seems to be the matter?"

**Ene:** I sit up somewhat grumpily from where I was tackled and watch the drama unfold.

**Meeker:** "There was a faint glow behind you, as if someone Elsecalled." Ryker trailed off. "I'm going to go check it out." He flies over to investigate the source of the glow he saw.

**Ap:** _Elsecalled? _Al turned around to watch Ryker. He placed his hand on his coat, intending to retrieve his Breath, but decided not to just yet. The group below stayed stationary for the most part.

**Meeker:** He reached to point of the glow. Nobody was around. _Whoever was here must have Elsecalled away. The spot indicates that they were watching us. Bad. _Ryker flew back to the group. "Bad news. Someone was watching us. Come on down, Alonze, we don't bite."

**Ap:** "Call me Al." Al followed the flying man down hill to the rest of the group. "So, who are you lot?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix, from his new hiding area and through his enhanced tin, overheard the man who appeared to be a Skybreaker say, "Bad news. Someone was watching us. Come on down, Alonze, we don't bite."

Phoenix, sighing and not wanting more suspicion drawn to him, Elsecalled within view of the others. "And neither do I," he stated. "From how I see it, you were likely spying on me and my friend first. Could you blame me for not wanting to stick around after overhearing some distinct threats bouncing back and forth?"

**Meeker:** "From what I know, which isn't much might I add, we are going to rescue Mahshi's sister from the Vindicators, some organization trying to reestablish the Inquisition." Ryker turns. "I knew someone was lurking about. Who are you?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled. "Oh, is that so? The _Vindicators_ are the ones who have captured Tesh? Where on earth did you get that notion? You need to verify your source of that information. It is in fact the New Inquisition who has captured Tesh, an organization with whom we have little to nothing in common with, and with whom we have a score to settle."

**Ap:** Alonze just stood back. _I thought the Inquisition was abolished forever ago...and who's this Tesh person? _

**Meeker:** "I've been gone for ten years - I'm not caught up with everything going on. Although I am here to help, if there is law and justice to be served, all the better. You will soon find out I am not fond of repeating myself. Who are you?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix responds, "Ah, a Skybreaker I presume? You may call me Phoenix, and yes, I am a member of the Vindicators. There is definitely law and justice to be served. This group that calls itself the New Inquisition has some nefarious plan to bring Ruin to Scadrial and very likely other parts of the cosmere. The leader of this group is able to hold sway over its members through a very unique blend of Devotion and Passion, which ties his Inquisitors and other members to him in a way that is likely far stronger than even Rashek's control over the ancient Inquisitors. I have introduced myself now. Now if I may, whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

**Meeker:** "Well introduced. I am Ryker Sinclair; you were right about my order. I am indeed a Skybreaker, as well as a Coinshot. Is there anything else you could tell me? Laws, a place where I can get signed documents signed allowing me to eliminate these criminals?"

**Phoenix:** "Laws, you say? Yes, you might find those sorts of places in the capital, Elendel. Out in the Roughs, not so much. And on the southern continent they do have laws, but of a very different sort than the northern continent. However, from what I have been able to glean, the criminals we seek are not hanging around any of these areas. You see, my friend I was speaking to when we were so interrupted has penetrated the New Inquisition's base, which apparently is only accessible through the Cognitive Realm. Which means that no laws on this planet would apply, as far as I can tell. However, I have not yet had an opportunity to glean the precise location."

Phoenix reaches his thoughts into the Cognitive Realm. _Wilberforce, can you hear me? It's all right to come over if you're near. Do you still have any remnants of Connection to the Physical Realm to show yourself to the others? _

**Meeker:** "I am not yet of the Fifth Ideal yet. Every land has laws, whether spoken or unspoken. I cannot help to the best of my ability until I have permission from the authorities. As for the New Inquisition, we return through the Well back to the Cognitive side."

**Tesh:** "Phoenix." Mahshi tilts his head in the man's direction. He then walks up to Al and offers his hand. "Mahshi." He purposely leaves out his last name. His old one is no longer his, and his newer one attracts too much attention. "Yes, Tesh is my sister; she is a Surgefinder and a member of the Knights of the Cosmere. And they - we - are not trying to reinstate the Inquisition. We are trying to stop it from gaining a foothold on the cosmere."

Al takes his hand and shakes it, and Mahshi steps back to Ryker. "Asking him to join us isn't a good idea. We don't know him or anything like that. He can't come with us," he whispers to Ryker.

**Meeker:** "I will watch him closely. There is no law permitting or prohibiting his joining. If he wants to join, let him, and I will keep an eye on him."

**Ink:** I watched the drama. So, Ryker was a...Sidebaker? No, Skybreaker. Why was he so suddenly into the law? This new guy, Al or whatever, I didn't trust him - but if the others accepted him, I guessed I had to. At least now I knew the other people I'd heard. Mahshi seemed to have a grudge, but not outright against them; more like two lawmen fighting over the same criminal. I glance at Al and signal to him, _I'm watching you. _Phoenix or whatever his name was seemed okay, at least as an ally. I didn't fully trust him yet.

**Mist:** Dawn sat several feet off to the side of the arguing men and women, eyes unfocused. It felt like wool had been pulled over the world, leaving it muffled and indistinct. He was vaguely aware of a tearing, raging anger, a consuming darkness, and a splitting pain, but the haze obscured them, and the emotions felt more like they belonged to somebody else, with Dawn merely looking over their shoulder. His memories were stifled, his sense of purpose lost, like an old axehound left out in a highstorm.

Thene and Rwendeh perched on his shoulders, yet felt miles away. The conversation drowned out to a murmur, almost nonexistent.

What had Dawn ever done? The question echoed in his head, a reassuring constant that he held to amidst the fog. Alas, the grasp left his hands burned by its blazing touch, scalding him as the thought ran laps in his brain. Vaguely, he knew the answer was terrible, and that his reply would likely cripple him, but he couldn't so much as remember what he'd done, even if he tried.

What _had_ he ever done? What mark would he leave when he died? Why did it matter?

**Ene:** There are so many new people arriving at once that I'm overwhelmed. _Yeah, the others can handle this. _I glance around and see that Dawn, the Steelrunner with Aviar that I got off on the wrong foot with, is sitting to the side. Time to remedy that.

I kneel next to him. "So, um. Scadrial's pretty great, huh? Have you...ever been here before?" _Wow, smooth, _mutters a corner of my brain sarcastically. S_hutupI'mtrying, _I mutter back. I always used to know how to talk with Jathlet. But then, he was different.

**Quick:** "Can we cut the chatter and get moving?" Tarenwel asks. "If you know where the Inquisition is hiding out, let's go. We have no idea what they might be planning."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix eyes the lawman tiredly. "Even if I knew where the base was, do you really think it is wise to attack head-on with no plan? According to Wilberforce, this base is one of the most heavily protected he has ever seen. Only he was able to penetrate the defenses, as he is a Cognitive Shadow. Now if we knew where the weak point was, I could open up a perpendicularity in that precise location to let us through, but we still as of yet do not know that information. We will have to wait for Wilberforce to come over and tell us.

All that aside, most of you will not stand a chance against the powers of the New Inquisition. I do sense a few of you have more Investiture than others, but even then you don't know what you are up against. The Vindicators are powerful and also have some experience fighting this group, so you should really leave this to us. We will rescue Tesh if we are able, although our ultimate goal is to deal a crippling blow to the New Inquisition, no matter the cost. If their plans come to fruition, it could be devastating to the entire cosmere, affecting millions of lives!"

**Quick:** "I never said we'd attack without a plan," Tarenwel replies, looking slightly annoyed, "but I can't picture us making a plan without first scouting out the place. Unless your shade friend already finished doing that."

**Ink:** "You all have a good point," I say. "I don't like rushing in without a plan."

**Mist:** Dawn looked up, faintly hearing a voice. The fog shifted slightly, and he saw Diona. She said...something about scarab beetles? No. Scadrial. That was it. Asking if he'd ever been here. For a moment he considered not answering. The girl was annoying, and it wouldn't matter in the end anyway, but some blush on the her cheeks caught his eye. She was embarrassed?

It was hard to think, to function, even to breath through the all-consuming mists, but Dawn realized that the girl must have gone out of her way to talk to him. Why? Did it matter? A sharp peck at his ear interrupted his drifting as Rwendeh chided him. _All right, I'll answer_, Dawn thought.

"No," he said. Plain and simple. Now she could leave him alone. Rwendeh pecked his ear again. Grudgingly, he spoke again. "I dreamed of going here all my life, but when I tried to go...we...my father..."

Dawn stopped. He almost couldn't remember through the obscuring cloud. Still, like a cold, sharp knife, he remembered what he had done.

**Shadow:** I watch with interest, but unable to contribute. This appears messier than ever before. If we are to save Tesh and stop the New Inquisition, then this group has to overcome its differences, if only for a short while.

Perhaps I can talk to someone. A Soulcaster in the group could converse with me. I don't want to force Phoenix to jump back and forth just to speak with me. Even someone with a spike could hear me. I scan the group carefully.

**Ap:** Al followed the rest of the group with caution. He had been going into the Cognitive Realm anyway, and decided to help them out for a bit. The group seemed uneasy around him, with the only one displaying interest in him being Ryker, the flying man.

Alonze turned to one of the others who had greeted him earlier. Was it Mahshi? "Could you get me up to speed? Other than the fact that you're rescuing some girl named Tesh from the non-existent Inquisition, I'm lost."

**Meeker:** "Try me."

**Ene:** "Oh. I...er..." From the way his eyes look, his father is probably dead, and I've suspected it for a while anyway. But then again, Dawn's eyes often look like that - all desolate and agonized, like the sky of Shadesmar.

I used to see that sky as interesting; intriguing and new, an adventure waiting to be figured out. When did my view of it change? When did I start seeing it as something hopeless and dying that made me shiver? _I can't let his eyes stay that way. I can't. _I'm not exactly trained in initiating a conversation, but I give it my best shot. I'll, I don't know, ask about his birds or something. He loves them.

What comes out of my mouth is completely unexpected. "I killed somebody once." Why did I say that? For this group, I doubt that's even mildly surprising. They've faced hard times. Most of them would probably think I'm weak for saying it.

Too late now. I don't recant.

**Mist:** Dawn looked up. Those words...they weren't what he'd been expecting. The girl Diona had always seemed foolish and innocent, and...the fog thickened, and his train of thought derailed.

"So have I," Dawn replied. He didn't know why he was talking to her. They would both die. What could conversation achieve? Yet truth lay behind his words, greater than he liked to acknowledge...greater, even, than the hazy shroud of lethargy shielding off the pain. He had killed someone. Multiple someones. He had faced one of those deaths and hidden it away, yet it still loomed over him like a monolith. The other two...no. Best not to think of them.

The thoughts kept nagging. Was that his legacy? Had he really done it? And if he had, which he almost refused to believe, could he survive facing it?

"Three people, actually," he said. Why had he kept talking, why? What did the girl Diona mean to him? So many questions. Dawn didn't really want the answers.

**Ene:** "I'm sorry." I glance down, at his birds, at the others as they talk. Then back at him. "Does it...does it get...better? The feeling of..." I search for the right words and find none. With Rioting, I can affect others. With goldminds, I can affect myself. But this pain can't be fixed merely with stored health, and you cannot use emotional Allomancy on yourself.

_If it doesn't get better...if I have to live with that. I… _

And I didn't even know _him_. That boy. But still, I never got the chance to. I never gave myself the chance, with Dawn. Now I am. Not entirely on purpose - this was not at all premeditated. But it was the right thing to do.

**Mist:** Dawn looked at her. "No. You can hide, you can try to face it down. The pain sweeps you away like a rogue wave. After I killed...m-my..." He couldn't. He couldn't say it. The wool over his eyes thickened once more, and he began to recede into himself.

**Ene:** "Killed who?"

**Mist:** No. No. No. He couldn't face it. He couldn't. No.

Dawn saw the girl Diona's eyes, kind, curious, and worried. He hated her for asking, for just a moment. The moment passed, and Dawn found that it was not her fault.

"I killed the woman I loved." Dawn finally said. He had already faced that. He could keep hiding, trapped in an eternity of fog. He could still hide. That wasn't true. He couldn't just leave it at that; that was too incomplete. "And I killed..."

He had to face it. The pain growled at him malevolently from across a thinning line of fog. He couldn't face them both now. She deserved to know at least one more. "I killed my brother," he finally choked out, struggling to fit the words between tears.

The haze cracked, as though struck by a tidal wave, and the darkness rushed in, sweeping him off his feet, dragging him under and gnawing at him with razor sharp teeth. He had killed his brother. _His brother. _Tears flooded down his face like broken crystal, the salt running down his face and stinging. He was a murderer. Nothing could ever change that.

Dawn cried, feeling his stomach drop away with a sickening vertigo, bathing in his failure and betrayal. It was his fault. He'd killed him _with his own hands. _A pure, cold, cutting darkness sliced through his insides like a knife. He had killed his brother. He was a disgrace. A failure. He deserved to die. Dawn sunk into the blackness, a slick lake mixed with salty swirling tears, cold like frost yet burning like a flame. All was pain and sadness. Light, joy, laughter...those things were fake. Insubstantial. Airy dreams born of an addled mind. Only sadness existed, coursing through his veins and dragging him under.

It was him. He was the problem. He deserved nothing less than death.

**Ene:** Before me, Dawn weeps. I sit back on my heels, unsure of what to do. I haven't been around someone openly expressing this much emotion in…

Have I ever?

I lean forward uncertainly and carefully place my arms around the sorrowful man. I've never been one for physical shows of support or friendship, but I know others are. Dawn doesn't seem like the type, but maybe...maybe this can help both of us. I hug him, tighter than a drowning woman embraces driftwood. Because I am drowning, just a little, and he is too - a lot.

I will be his driftwood. I will keep him afloat. I swear this to myself. I _will_ help this fierce, antisocial, amazing warrior.

I swear it on my own life.

**Mist:** Dawn let the girl Diona hug him, allowing himself to melt into her embrace. Why she did that, Dawn had no idea. He was a weak, cowardly murderer, and he did not deserve friends or affection. The darkness inside demanded it. He deserved nothing.

Yet she kept hugging him.

Was this what friendship was like? Dawn couldn't remember. He hadn't had someone to lean on in years. He didn't deserve anyone to lean on. For some unfathomable reason, he had someone anyway.

Dawn hugged back.

**Ink:** I watch the two. They seem to understand each other. I wish I had someone like that…

**Tesh:** "My sister had been abducted by the New Inquisition. We're trying to find her, and at least weaken the Inquisition in the process. That's all you really need to know."

**Fire:** Confound it all, the Radiant girl was dying. How unfortunate. He couldn't let her die just yet. She still needed to tell him what he wanted.

"How about this?" Detrare asked, stepping forward and holding the gem to Tesh's face. As he prepared to speak, he noticed the faint tendrils of black smoke reaching out of the gemstone's center to latch on to the spike in her shoulder. An effect of the gem that could only be seen in the Cognitive Realm. "Breathe in, let yourself be healed and push the pain away a bit longer, and tell me what I want." As he spoke into the gem, he could sense that he was piercing into Tesh's mind and soul, making it impossible for her to ignore him. "Just breathe, and you'll be all right. I'll make it even easier for you: you don't have to tell me about the rest of your Knights. For now, I would like to know about something...else that you once encountered."

Detrare scrutinized Tesh's face as she slipped in and out of focus. She could hear him, no doubt, but he couldn't let her die yet. The self-proclaimed Knights of the Cosmere weren't all he wanted to learn of. "A little over a year ago, a number of you Knights came into conflict with what can only be distinguished as a Splinter. Some small form of sentient Investiture that could bond itself to anyone and take control of them entirely. Such a thing is unprecedented and impossible. And yet, so it was. It successfully bonded to...Varaseel, was it? Any others?"

He smiled at Tesh comfortingly. "It was quite a trial to you all, wasn't it? Tell me what happened to it. What is its status? Where might it be found? I ask because, you see, such a thing could be a wonderful asset to the Inquisition. Better to have two with us than only one." He paused again, letting that implication sink in.

**Quick:** Tarenwel laid down on the side of the hill, at a slight incline to the sky, to wait for the others to be ready to leave. Sometimes people just didn't do what you wanted them to. You had to either work around them or cut yourself off from them. The latter option was, in this case, impossible, so Tarenwel decided to work out their own issues.

He gazed up at the clouds above him. Though hardly an avid cloudwatcher, Tarenwel had always found the large white formations interesting. They were so...awe-inspiring. Though they appeared relatively small and close, some of them were miles above him, and a good deal would be larger than mountains. One floated through his vision that reminded him of a pair of handcuffs. The resemblance wasn't very close, but it was passable.

Tarenwel frowned slightly, remembering something he had read once about a psychological study. Different participants had been shown different shapes, and the images they saw had been used to analyze their psychology. Tarenwel wondered whether he would have seen an image like a pair of handcuffs if he hadn't spent the last decade fighting criminals in a lawless waste. Had his time in the Roughs altered him forever?

Before that, he had spend six years living in Tathingdwel, a city with a major Terris population. Much of his time had been spent learning, and a good portion of that learning had been concerned with Terris philosophy. The Terris advocated peace and cooperation, which had seemed strange to Tarenwel. Having spent the years of his youth a slave to the Set, the idea that a world could be built on peace had been odd, to say the least. Didn't men always abuse each other?

Now, after nine years in the most lawless place on Scadrial and one eye-opening adventure, he wasn't so sure. In the Roughs there was chaos, yes, but the violence and unpredictability had often served to draw people together. The lawlessness had served to highlight the unity of the people, not mute it. Now the impressive loyalty this man showed his sister, and the devotion of these others to justice, made him wonder.

_Was_ it possible to create a world, or at least a community, _without _chaos?

**Phoenix:** "Look, maybe you can hold your own, but from what I can tell, you have no way to heal yourself if you run out of Stormlight; which puts you at a distinct disadvantage to everyone else on the field, including the enemy. And the enemy will likely have ways to drain you of your Stormlight. This will help, but it, too is limited. I offer one of these to each of you."

Phoenix digs out a handful of gold medallions from his pouch, newly minted at his lab. "But I still cannot recommend that you join the battle against this foe, for your own sakes. Now, my friend Wilberforce would like to share a message for all of us, but since none of you appear quite broken enough, or at least not in the right emotional state for him to speak through one of you, we will need to travel to Shadesmar to receive the message. Come, follow me." Phoenix walks into the perpendicularity.

**Quick:** Tarenwel stands and strides over to the perpendicularity, hopping in and crossing over to the Cognitive Realm.

**Ink:** I look at Phoenix. "What are these? Goldminds? But they only work for the one who stored them, don't they?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix waits while the group crosses through the perpendicularity. One of the unfamiliar new members of the group asked, "What are these? Goldminds? But they only work for the one who stored them, don't they?"

"Normally, yes, but these are special and have additional properties that allow anyone to access the stored Investiture inside. In in fact, you can even store some health of your own in these as long as you are willing to become sick for a time," Phoenix responds.

**Ap:** Al was starting to doubt his decision. A ragtag group of wannabe heroes taking on the rusting Inquisition? It was a suicide mission! Sure, they were powerful, but compared to the Steel Inquisitors of old...Al shuddered at the thought of the massacre that could happen.

He watched as the Terrisman crossed over into the Cognitive Realm. Tarenwel, was it? Al walked over to the perpendicularity, stepping in. A strange yet familiar chill ran down his spine; having done this only four times prior, it seemed a new experience each time. With a deep breath, Al came into being on the misty ground.

**Quick:** Tarenwel accepted his metalmind, staring at it dubiously. Could he really store in it? Even without being a Bloodmaker? Even though it wasn't his? He tried filling the piece of metal, same as he did with his steel metalminds. Just a smidge. To his shock he _could _feel the power there; just like with his own bracers. He stopped filling before effects could manifest. Being a Bloodmaker _would _be useful. Was this something like what being a Full Feruchemist had been like? No; they had access to _all sixteen _metals to store in. They would have been able to do so much.

Tarenwel looked up again. The sky in the Cognitive Realm seemed very strange, having so recently been under a blue sky with white clouds. Though the environment had grown familiar during the weeks he'd spent there, just a short time back in the Physical Realm had been enough to show just how alien this place really was.

**Ap:** Al received a goldmind and shoved it in his coat. He would investigate it later, once he found out everything about these people. He knew there was more to this group than it seemed. Being worldhoppers like himself, they would have many secrets that Alonze himself could barely fathom. Did they know of other worlds or Investitures? Maybe that's how Ryker could fly...

Al casually walked over to Tarenwel. The ground here was certainly different than Scadrial's. It almost seemed to bob whenever one applied pressure. "So," Alonze started, "How'd you find your way in with this lot?"

**Ink:** I take the goldmind and try to store health. I start to feel like I did with the ettmetal effect. If this is a goldmind, then I could burn it...I'd be practically invincible. I start to store as much health as I can without collapsing or becoming too weak.

**Quick:** "Hm?" Tarenwel asked. "Oh. I got here chasing a crook."

**Ene:** I look up in surprise as the other begin to mill around, some jumping back into the Well. What? We just got here! I stand and offer a hand to help Dawn up, refusing the metalmind somebody tries to hand me. "I'm good with my own goldminds, thanks." _With them, I know someone can't just come along and steal them. Only I can use my health, thank you very much. _

**Ap:** "A crook? Are you a lawman?" Al asks Tarenwel.

**Quick:** "Yup."

**Ap:** "And how in the world did this make you a worldhopper?"

**Quick:** "Like I said. Chasing someone."

**Ap:** "Hmm..." It had been a while since Al had had such an ambitious goal. The idea of having enough dedication to chase someone across not only your world, but the rest of the _galaxy_, was beyond Al. Last time he had anything half that, needless to say, it ended badly. "What about this man makes him worth such a pursuit? Surely it's more than just felony."

**Shadow:** I breathe a sigh of relief as people begin coming into my plane of existence. It won't be easy, getting to know all these new faces. Perhaps, by the end of the day, it shall not matter. This assault promises to be dangerous.

"I am Wilberforce Thornton," I say to the gathered strangers. "I only recognize a few of you, but I trust you are all dedicated to the eradication of this New Inquisition. If not, let me describe what I have seen the last few days."

I begin with the assault that kidnapped Tesh. I tell of the attack on the town, done purely out of spite as far as I can tell. I leave out my hand in the destruction of three of the koloss, as I do not wish to frighten away anyone who may already be wary of a shade from Threnody. I then tell of following their trail back through the Cognitive Realm to Detrare's base of operations. I tell of the defenses surrounding the place. Proximity fabrials on the material plane, and Investiture-reinforced walls on the mental. Captured beasts of the most savage variety, several of them heavily Invested, all under the control of Detare's strange combination of Investiture.

With a heavy heart I tell them I was unable to locate Tesh or her spren, but that I found several...operating rooms. Here the New Inquisition extracts the Investiture out of every kind of individual imaginable: Knights Radiant; Twinborns, Mistings and Ferrings; sand masters; I even saw them pull the Investiture of an Elantrian out. They drove the spikes into subjects willing and otherwise, trying to ascertain the ideal location for maximum effect.

The twisted experiments they performed on others there twisted my soul so violently that after escaping I was barely coherent. Without Gaize's guidance and relentless prodding I would not have made it out at all. But I do not tell them this. "It's not far from here," I conclude. "We will need strength, cunning, and no small amount of luck to get near it unseen. Once we are inside there is no chance of stealth. Our best hope is in surprising those within and neutralizing their forces before they can gather together and mount a sufficient resistance."

**Quick:** "The most important thing now," Tarenwel muses, " Is finding out where Tesh is. We can't make a plan until we know that."

**Meeker:** Ryker, who had been quiet up to this point, speaks. "Perhaps a reconnaissance group is best before we begin to plan."

**Ink:** "Yes, that would be smart," I say, "but won't they have defenses against even the smallest of groups? We need someone who can go undetected, and even a Cognitive Shadow -" I look at the ghost "- would probably be detected."

**Meeker:** "Can I volunteer myself?" Ryker asks. "This seems to be in my forte."

**Ene:** I walk into the Well and am confronted with a bunch of talking people.

**Ap:** Alonze decided that he shouldn't join the recon group. He was new here and probably wouldn't be trusted. After all, assassination from the inside is never pretty, especially during a rescue mission.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix notes the direction Wilberforce gestured and nods. "Surely they would have detected you, as their base is here in the Cognitive Realm where you manifest. Were you able to exploit an area of the base's defenses?"

**Shadow:** I nod hesitantly. "Firstly, they rely heavily on patrols, and prefer not to use Investiture to detect foreigners. The fabrials work less effectively against shadows like myself, so I avoided triggering those alarms. Secondly, their patrols are searching for _living_ invaders, and mostly from the physical side. I believe I can sneak back in, disable their fabrials for a few minutes, and give you all the benefit of surprise. However, the concentration of Detrare's strange Investiture makes it wearing on the mind. We would do well to shield ourselves with a coppercloud or an Aviar. And that may trigger alarms I did not find."

**Quick:** "Hmm..." Tarenwel mused. "If I got close enough I might be able to pick up some interesting things with bronze."

**Ene:** I head back through the portal, leaving them to their planning. I'll go along with whatever they decide. For now, I'll wait it out. Dawn is still in the Physical Realm, and I don't want to leave him for too long. For both his sake, and my own. I come through the other end and find him where I left him, strolling over and sitting next to him companionably.

**Mist:** Dawn looks up through a film of tears, seeing Diona sit beside him once more. "D-do they n-need me in there?" he says, voice quavering between stifled tears. Oh, but why did it matter if they were doomed to fail!? He only hoped Rwendeh and Thene would not be hurt in the coming bloodbath. Thinking on it, he revised his earlier stance. He only hoped Rwendeh, Thene, and _Diona_ would not be hurt in the coming bloodbath.

**Ap:** Al fingered the goldmind he had been given, experimenting with it. If he had any clue what was to come, he would be filling as fast as he can. Given, he still wasn't sure what they were up to, but he did anyways. It came in a rush, leaving him weak and feeble. Al took deep breaths and sat back as he stored his health.

**Phoenix:** "Thanks, Wilberforce, I think I have gleaned enough. Send Gaize to find me and the others whenever you have the defenses disabled, we'll be close by." With that, Phoenix Elsecalls back to his lab in southern Scadrial. "Sam? Rathil? Cole? Are you guys around? We have the location of the base now, and someone who will be disabling the security from the inside. It's time to attack!"

**Sami:** The knife left Sam's fingertips and buried itself into the wall with a thud. Sam spun the second knife in her hand with satisfaction. The smith knew his stuff, it seemed. Before it could leave her hand and follow its brother into the wall, a voice rang through the base, pausing her actions. "It's time to attack!"

She started towards the wall to collect her knives. "Well, nice to know you made some new friends to play with," she said dryly. "So, who are they? They'd better be good solid fighters who know how to keep their personal issues to themselves."

**Tesh:** I force my eyes open at the sound of Detrare's voice. My vision is fuzzy, and I can't see straight, but a purple light fills my vision. Voidlight. I...I can't take that in. Can I? Maybe...I close my eyes. I hear Detare's voice, but I my brain won't process the information.

**Phoenix:** "Friends? Hardly. I tolerated them long enough to obtain the information I needed from Wilberforce. They will have to make their way to the fortress on foot. Only a few are battle-ready anyway; there's a Skybreaker who has the motivation, but his abilities seem limited. At any rate, I don't trust any of them. They would go to any lengths to save that girl, even if it meant dooming the cosmere."

**Cole:** Cole lightly tapped hearing and listened for a second. Inside the house clamored kids' yells and feet hitting the ground as they ran, playing their games. A smile flashed on Cole's face, disappearing as quickly as it began. Most smiles didn't last long on his face. Beyond the children he also heard two older voices, ones he knew rather well.

His younger son, Corrin, was here. Cole choked up for a second with emotion, but quickly recovered. His hand reached toward the doorknob, but stopped just as quick. It hovered for a second, but soon he pulled it back. Instead he dropped the bag, knocked on the door, and soared off into the night - revealing the coward that he was.

**Sami:** Sam sheathed her knives, shoving them into her belt and turning to face Phoenix.

"So more of them, solely on a mission to rescue Tesh." The corner of her lips tilted up."So what's the plan, then? We get in with the help of this _inside_ man, they rescue Tesh, they get out, and then? We just _attack_?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix tilted his head in thought. "If we did that, and waited for them, we lose all element of surprise. No, we go in as soon as we know the defenses are down and attack the New Inquisition at its core. If the other group is able to rescue Tesh in time, then great, but that can't be our primary goal." He looked around. "So, where are the others? We need to get moving."

**Cole:** Cole fell from the sky, not even bothering to drop a coin to slow his fall. The pewter was enough to keep him alive, but the impact still hurt. He walked inside of Phoenix's base and saw Samar and Phoenix talking.

"Any news?" he asked with no emotion in his voice. Self loathing still coursed through him, he would throw himself at a chasmfiend with no hesitation, but when it came to his kids, terror filled him at even speaking to them. Maybe it was the guilt that he had about his parenting, maybe the guilt about missing so much of their childhoods traveling the cosmere.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looks up to see Cole walking into the lab. "Any news?" the man asks.

"Yes, we found the fortress of the New Inquisition. It's in the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial, not far from the Well of Ascension. My friend Wilberforce, a Cognitive Shadow, tailed some of their minions back to the base undetected and did some reconnaissance while there. He also has a way of temporarily disabling their technology that detects Investiture, so we have a decent shot at catching them off guard in an attack. We can leave as soon as everyone is ready."

**Ene:** I rummage through my bag. Pencil, extra goldmind, water, a stick..._Wait, why do I even have this? _I pull the stick out and chuck it aside. Delving back into my satchel, I come out with my prize of tissues and hand Dawn a few. "They're talking and planning in there. I don't know if they need you, but if you want to go in, I'll follow."

**Mist:** Dawn took the tissues, wiping his face dry and chipping off some of the salt by his eyes. It was a familiar feeling, born of tears that too often graced his face. He stood, picking up his pack and thanking Diona for the tissues. "I should join them. It's our lives we're risking," he said, and with that, walked over to the perpendicularity with Diona.

The pool reminded him of stories his father had told about the Scadrian perpendicularity, and how it had been a well of immense power, allowing an individual to ascend every 1,024 years. His father claimed that he had seen it before the Catacendre, but Dawn took that with the same grain of salt he did with some of his father's other outlandish stories. He had even claimed to be on first name basis with Harmony himself, at one point.

Dawn eased out of the memories after he entered the Cognitive Realm. Those were happy memories, but all memories of his father held undertones Dawn would rather avoid, if he wanted to avoid another breakdown. After what had happened...what he had done...Dawn shook it off and began to walk toward the group of people, birds on his shoulders, Diona at his side. He could do this.

**Ink:** I watch Diona and Dawn walk in. They've grown close. Is it something that they both did and share guilt about? Is it just compassion? Do they just...understand each other? Whatever the case, I have a feeling if something happens to one, the other will enter a place of no return.

I turn to the rest of them, Rioting their senses of hope and determination while Soothing their fear and uncertainty. "We must get going if we are to save Tesh and take down the Inquisition! We all have unique talents, talents that will allow us to defeat this evil organization and bring a greater sense of peace to this world! We fight because we care. We care what happens to Tesh." I don't know Tesh, but it sounds like the rest do.

"We care what happens to the people of this world, and of all others. We cannot allow any more to be killed for Hemalurgy! We all have our flaws, yes, but together, our strengths weave those flaws together to create something stronger than they would be on their own! Knights of the Cosmere! Let's do this! For the sake of the cosmere!"

**Quick:** Tarenwel snorted quietly. His own "talents" were hardly unique. Both bronze Allomancy and steel Feruchemy were already represented in the group. Though, to his knowledge, none of them were lawmen.

**Ap:** Alonze listened to the assumed Mistborn, practicing his usual nervous habit: repeatedly giving and taking back his Breath to something. He found it amusing when other Awakeners saw his BioChroma flickering. Al hardly believed that he would be a valuable asset to the team, but listened anyways. He recovered his Breath one last time, and then stopped for a reason he didn't know. He suddenly felt...calm. Determined and confident to rescue this Tesh person. How odd.

**Ene:** Dawn and I walk back over to the main group, stopping a short ways away. I glance over at him. He looks a little bit better, but those eyes...they're still shaded with unknown monsters. How can one little piece of driftwood stand against the monsters in his past? I don't know, but I'll still try. I reach over and squeeze his hand reassuringly.

**Mist:** Diona squeezed Dawn's hand, and he was caught off guard slightly. He didn't really know how to respond, so he squeezed back and tried to give her a reassuring look. Storms, it was good to have somebody.

Rwendeh took off and landed on the man Quell's head, perching and leaning down to look at him. Dawn smiled faintly, but the sense of looming despair in the pit of his stomach did not abate. He tuned in the conversation, listening to them discuss strategies for rescuing Tesh and taking out the New Inquisition. Dawn hoped that he could do some good, and leave a mark on the world beyond his murders, but that was futile. He would no sooner be absolved than chasmfiends would learn to fly.

Now, though, he had purpose. Dawn had somebody to fight for, somebody to hold on to. He covertly slipped a Parthian earring into his ear and prayed. It was the first time he had truly prayed to Harmony, but it felt like the natural response here in Harmony's own domain. He would need all the help he could get for what was coming.

_Harmony, please keep my Aviar safe, and please protect Diona. _It wasn't a very detailed prayer, but Dawn had never been one to beat around the bush. He got no reply, as expected, but hopefully his prayer would be heard.

He listened into the conversation again, pretending he had been focused the whole time. Dawn was ready. He only hoped they would all survive the night.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix, Rathil, Cole and Sam finish strapping on their vial belts and sphere pouches. Phoenix stands near the others. "All right, time to end this."

He Elsecalls the Vindicators to the perimeter of the New Inquisition fortress and scans with both his BioChroma and bronze for signs of people or Investiture, but comes up empty. "They must have good shielding in there. I can't sense anything. It would probably be best to wait for the signal from my shade friend's...er, spren, so we know when their ability to detect us has been temporarily disabled."

**Fire:** "Bother," Detrare said to Tesh when she just continued sitting there, noting her unresponsiveness. If she really had any willpower or personal honor to speak up and save a life, she would have done so by now. He had spent enough time with her already. "You really don't want to cooperate, even if it could mean saving a life? I expected better from you. Though I should thank you. By refusing to speak to me and causing death, you are causing Ruin. No matter what you do, you are serving us whether you like it or not. I can only hold you responsible for what happens now." He gave her one last smile, tucked away the gemstone, and looked up at Saun, who was holding the spike and sledgehammer. "You know what to do, son."

Saun sighed with relief, then tucked the spike into his belt and retrieved the machete from the old woman, pressing it to the honorspren's neck for Tesh to see. For most people, it would be difficult to manage using three weapons at once with only two hands, but Saun had been well-trained in such things. Normally, he had at least four on hand to swap out at any given moment. An example of which would happen now.

With a howl of delight, Saun suddenly leapt away from the spren toward the spindly young man. In an upward flash of the blade, he had chopped off the boy's ear that was pierced by the needle-like spike, and as the boy was just crying out in surprise and pain, he swung the knife back down, slicing down the boy's back. The boy arched back, gaping at the ceiling and gurgling as his spine was split down the middle. Saun quickly dropped the knife and pulled out the spike. As the young man began to teeter back, gurgling and convulsing, Saun rammed the spike into the upper part of his back, piercing right through the heart. Then he raised the sledgehammer in his left hand and repeatedly swung it into the head of the spike, bashing it deeper into the man's back with sickening crunches until the tip almost fully emerged from the front of his chest.

Saun gleefully reached around the now-dead boy's back and grabbed at the bloody spike, yanking on it. It kept on slipping from his fingers, sending specks of blood flying all around the room, but he finally managed to pull it free. Holding the grisly trophy aloft, Saun tore his shirt open, revealing three other spikes already embedded in his torso. Grinning, he positioned the spike at an open bind point on his ribcage, then slammed the hammer onto the head of it and drove the spike into his own torso.

He screamed in pain, but it was a scream of pleasure. Saun delighted in all forms of pain, even his own. Especially his own. He was always in pain with the spikes that were already in him, but he had learned to live with it and love it. He kept on pounding until the spike was firmly embedded within him. He collapsed to his knees, groaning from the agony of having just driven a large Hemalurgic spike into his stomach. On the ground by the young man's body was the ear with the spike in it. Saun quickly picked up that thin spike and stabbed it into another open spot on his torso with much less pain and difficulty. Unfortunately.

And Detrare watched all of it as a proud parent. Hemalurgy. God's will being fulfilled in such a glorious, Passionate way. This was what they lived for. This was their purpose. And now, in doing that, he had shown Tesh an example of what being shamefully uncooperative brought upon her, shown her what it was the Inquisition did, and put Saun two steps closer to being a full Inquisitor all at once. Perfect. A perfect alternative to her giving him all the information she knew. Whatever she said or did, she served him in some way or another, the silly little girl.

He looked back to Tesh, gesturing at the corpse on the ground. "Now, look what you've done. You could have kept that gruesome death from happening, but you didn't. And you would think me the villain of all this?" He pointed more firmly at the corpse. "That right there is the will of Ruin, a fraction of God. _This is God's will._ If you can't accept that and look past your honor, an ideal and Intent of a god long dead and irrelevant, then you are useless and good for nothing but wasting away and letting your actions destroy others as they just did."

He turned and walked toward the exit. "The next time I return, I hope that you might be more willing to talk about your Knights and that Splinter." Saun and the older woman followed him out, leaving the spren lying on the ground and Tesh still chained to the chair.

**Tesh:** I finally give up. I breathe in a small amount of the Voidlight. My vision clears slightly, along with my head. My knees scab over.

"Bother," I hear Detare say. "You really don't want to cooperate, even if it could mean saving a life?" Saving whose life? "I expected better from you. Though I should thank you. By refusing to speak to me and causing death, you are causing Ruin. No matter what you do, you are serving us whether you like it or not. I can only hold you responsible for what happens now. You know what to do, son."

The boy falls, screaming in fear and agony. No...no, no, no! I try to stand, to yell, to do anything, but in vain. I'm still too weak. And he's gone, now. Nothing I can do. As the events unfold, I watch. Blood everywhere. Metal, screams, a body, and more blood. Throughout the whole thing, I watch in terror. These people have power; I have nothing.

Finally they leave. Leave me chained to a chair with the body of the boy. I begin to weep. "Harmony," I whisper, tears running down my dirty face. "Harmony, I thought I was strong. I thought I could deal with anything. But I can't. Everything else I've been through has been a lie. Nothing matters; I can't change anything. I knew nothing of pain, yet this boy died today because of me. I can't even pretend to be strong. I can't." I glance at Ani, lying on the ground a few feet from the body. "Not anymore."

I continue to sob. After about twenty minutes, Ani awakens, goes back to her normal size, and gets up. She sits on my leg. "Tesh," she says gently after a while. "I think...I think we're going to die."

**Shadow:** I lead the group toward Detrare's base. Even from a distance I feel exposed, as if shades are waiting to burst forth at any given moment and wither us to ashes. That's nonsense, of course. Shades would not come this far, and nobody knows we are coming. I hope. The base is near the edge of the Expanse of the Vapors, where the ground is more solid and powers can be merged more easily. A large forest lays between us and the base, and it slows the group down slightly, though it provides some cover.

"We cannot get too close to the Ire," I tell them as we walk. "They are aware of all who drift near their base and take sharp measures against them. But even they are not as dangerous as Detrare..." Our course winds around the edge of the Ire's territory, moving farther toward uninhabited space. We cannot travel quickly or we risk attracting attention. Only when we are nearly within sight of Detare's base do I stop the group. It is the edge of the forest, and barely anything grows here.

"There is a patrol that moves past here, but you can avoid them if you stay low." I look at the group and frown as I realize what we are attempting, but I push forward. "Gaize, my bird-like friend here, will alert you when I have dropped the proximity fabrial, or tell you to run if I fail. Even if I succeed it will only give you a few moments of surprise, so use them wisely. Kill as many Inquisitors as you can. Try not to die." I search the group for understanding.

**Mist:** Dawn stands closer to the back of the group with Diona, listening to the shadow Wilberforce detail his plan. Anticipation and fear formed a tightly knit in his stomach, and he felt a slight, vertigo-like nausea rising.

Rwendeh and Thene seemed on edge too, twittering nervously on his shoulders. He wanted to leave them where they'd be safe, but Dawn knew they'd just fly back to try to protect him. After all, he was not one to chastise. He had no idea what he was going up against. Inquisitors and worldhoppers, beings dozens of times stronger than he...and yet he was fighting anyway.

Dawn turned to Diona, resting a hand on her arm. "Stay safe," he pled. "Please."

**Tesh:** Mahshi nods his head slowly. This could work. It could...it might not. But there's still a chance. "If there's a chance," he whispers to the air, "then I'm willing to take it."

**Ink:** I break off a piece of the gold to take back to my lab if I survive. It's been a long time since I've been there. I check my metal vials, all coated in aluminum. One with all the metals besides aluminum and atium, three with the physical, two emotional, two enhancement, sans aluminum, and two with cadmium, bendalloy and electrum. I never use aluminum or gold Allomantically, because they have little burning use, and are very valuable to commoners and those with the Metallic Arts both.

I roll the medallion between my fingers, looking at everyone's anticipation. We're a force to be reckoned with, but from what I've heard, we've got a very tough fight ahead.

**Fire:** Detrare quivered in anticipation, as he was sure the other two strapped down in the room with him were. Three hundred years of preparation, all come to this. The beginning of the end would come very soon. They were all in the Inquisition's last Scadrian Conventical, sequestered in the basement of the fortress. They had once possessed another in the Physical Realm where Mask and many others were made, but that was before the aluminum-masked experimental Inquisitor had returned to it and demolished it.

Detrare, Saun, and a third volunteer, an older Nalthian man who'd demonstrated great zeal for bloodshed in times past were strapped down on separate concrete tables, waiting to be pierced. Detrare was softly singing to himself the lullaby he had sung for all the Inquisitors in times past.

_**In me nothing seen, for I cannot be felt, **_

_**Cannot be heard, cannot be smelled, **_

_**I lie behind stars. I walk amongst hills, **_

_**Empty holes I will come to fill. **_

_**I came first. I follow after. **_

_**I end life. I kill laughter. **_

_**What am I? **_

_**...I am Darkness… **_

He closed his eyes and mouth as he heard the jars unscrew, and a clip was pinched onto his nose, followed by plugs in the ears. The acolytes spiking him knew what they were doing. They were his greatest Hemalurgists, who he trusted with his life above all others.

Blood was pouring out of the jars onto him as the spikes were pulled out of them. Its metallic smell was somewhat musty, and he could feel that some of it had coagulated. No matter. The power was preserved in the spikes all the same. The tip of a spike prodded into the left side of his lower chest, then another on the right. He breathed in deeply with his mouth. Now was the time. He was ready.

The slam of hammers on flat metal surfaces. The squelch of spikes piercing flesh. The screams of pain that transformed into exclamations of delight. All this echoed from three separate tables as the will of Ruin was made manifest. With every pound, the agony increased, and Detrare tried his best to revel in it. He was so used to healing himself that pain was easily ignored for decades. Now he was willing himself not to compound gold.

To truly feel pain was to feel Passion, and to embrace it and let emotion take control was to fully manifest the Passion. And the three men who had dedicated themselves to this were truly demonstrated their Devotion to the cause. This was what the Inquisition was all about. This was why the Inquisitors were the Exemplars. Detrare thought more on that as the spikes were stabbed further into him, trying to focus through the wonderful, sweet pain.

Two in the abdomen. There truly was never just one Exemplar for each Intent. All the Inquisitors had been regarded as Exemplars of Ruin. But Saun had exemplified that even before his new transformation. Another in the lower ribs. And while Eheron was obviously the Exemplar of Devotion, there was no reason to not consider Aloo such an Exemplar as well. The man literally did _anything_ that was asked of him, no matter how random or strange.

Another one in the upper chest area. And who was to say that only Kalazeras could be the Exemplar of Passion? Detrare hadn't seen him in a long time, but he was confident that the parshman had used his skill in inciting emotion to bring other men and women to such a level of Passion as he possessed. One more in the shoulder. Another -

No. Not in the eyes. Not for Detrare, at least. He would receive all the normal Inquisitor spikes except for those two. But he would get the linchpin spike between the shoulder blades, in the event that he would need those steel spikes in his eyes. If it was ripped out...he would still be able to heal from it. The effect would only be lethal if his eyes were pierced as well, which wouldn't be happening anytime soon. That would just ruin the surprise for everyone else.

The entire process lasted a few minutes for Detrare, but it felt like hours. As the straps were released, Detrare rolled off the table, landing on his knees and groaning. The sweet pain was coursing through his entire midsection, burning within him like an Allomantic metal. Yes, Detrare was burning away the pain, burning it away until the pain was no more. He could ignore it. He could heal it. He began compounding gold once again, and the pain started to ease just a bit. The new injuries inflicted perfectly healed around the spikes. He needed to focus again, to get control of his bearings.

Detrare stood up, waving for a young woman standing in the corner to bring him a robe so he wasn't just standing around in nothing but a loincloth while soaked in blood. He looked to his left, where the man from Nalthis was finally getting the spikes in his eyes. Nearly done. To his right, Saun was still getting spike after spike stuck into him. And so he was screaming the loudest. He was getting more than the average Inquisitor, being put through more pain than any that had come before him. Well, except for Mask. But Mask had been a special case. Mask would never willingly cause as much chaotic mayhem as Saun would. It hadn't originally been in Mask's nature to cause harm. Saun had been born this way.

As Detrare put on the black robe offered to him, he retrieved his wooden box from another woman. When these last two Inquisitors would reach completion, he would need to gain control of them. He walked up the steps to the entrance of the room, then turned and looked down. The Nalthian Inquisitor had finally gotten all his spikes in him.

As one of the Hemalurgists began loosing his bonds, the Inquisitor reached up and grabbed him by the throat, crushing it in his fist and slamming the man's face into the stone table's edge. The other Hemalurgist stepped back hurriedly, but she'd already loosed the straps on the other side enough that the Inquisitor could slip out of them. As the Inquisitor threw the man's body back, he leapt for the woman and grabbed her by the neck, slamming her into the stone floor and growling. By now, Detrare had taken the gem out of the box and was holding it to his mouth.

He Pulled on the Nalthian man's emotions with all his might, specifically his desire to serve. If he pulled hard enough, the Inquisitor's will would break and he would be under Detrare's complete control. A normal Pull wouldn't work, but the gemstone helped with that. "Stop now," he ordered firmly as he continued Rioting the man. And as he spoke, he felt the man's mind give way, and the Inquisitor stopped strangling the Hemalurgist's corpse.

"Rise up and stand by me." The Inquisitor obeyed. Good. Now that he was finally listening, Detrare wouldn't need to keep controlling him. The fellow was Devoted enough to the cause to willingly obey. He just needed a bit of reining in at first. Detrare had had that problem with Saun many times, and he was sure he would have it now. Now he just had to wait for Saun to be finished. "Who are you?" Detrare asked the blood-soaked Nalthian Inquisitor standing silently next to him.

After a pause, the Inquisitor smiled and growled, "Maim."

"You are more than just a new man, Maim," Detrare said proudly. "You are beyond that. You are a manifestation of a will of God. You are now an Exemplar of Ruin who will do great things." Just like all those who came before him.

In the centuries that the New Inquisition had existed, many Inquisitors had been made. And all who had come before had died. The last three to die had been slain by one of the Knights of the Cosmere or someone affiliated with them, curse them all. Others throughout history had been killed by other lucky worldhoppers skilled enough to challenge them or Voidspren on Braize when the Inquisition had mistakenly first tried venturing there. Once, long ago, one Inquisitor had killed another when Detrare had weakened his control over it. Which was why couldn't let that mistake happen again. He'd experimented on that before with Mask. And it had ended in his death at the hands of that stupid little Teshani.

But he couldn't dwell on the past. Not when the magnanimous importance of the future was so near now. So Detrare closed his eyes and waited at the top of the steps as they continued spiking Saun. His dear son, the wonderful boy he had raised so lovingly. Saun was second only to Eheron in the people Detrare loved and cared for the most, though Detrare would never admit that to him. After all, they weren't only supposed to have Devotion to the cause of the Inquisition. That Intent also entailed Devotion to one's friends and family. That Devotion to one another, that Devotion to bring Ruin and indulge in one's Passions was what unified the Inquisition into a successful force of nature dedicated to bringing about Adonalsium's will as interpreted by man.

That was why Detrare had chosen those three Intents to refound the Inquisition on. They were the Intents he felt the closest connection to, which had led him to want to fulfill them as best as he could. He couldn't try fulfilling all sixteen Intents of Adonalsium on his own or even with the entire Inquisition; that would be impossible. So he tried to exemplify the three he felt that he and the rest of mankind were closest to. In a way, the Inquisition was founded on the belief of fulfilling the intentions of Adonalsium as interpreted by man. And that was what they'd done; with an express focus on Ruin.

Detrare had once wondered why he had chosen to favor Ruin primarily over the other two Intents, then had realized that he'd only begun to follow that path once he'd trapped and controlled that Splinter. It had to have done something to affect things, to affect his mind and soul. There was no other explanation. Before the Splinter, the Inquisition had only caused small, random acts of mayhem and terror to accomplish Ruin. And now, he had the entire Fulfillment planned out, which he would soon explain to the rest of his Exemplars and confidants.

Detrare's train of thought was interrupted by more screaming. Not Saun's. He opened his eyes to see that Saun had broken free of his straps, leapt off the table, and had begun ferociously attacking everyone else in the room. A couple of spikes and hammers were dancing in the air around him, drifting toward and away from him and smashing into anyone too far to be beaten to death by his own hand. The Hemalurgists, the attendees with the robes standing nearby - none of them were safe from his wrath. He was a naked, blood-drenched, spike-pierced maelstrom of death.

Detrare cocked his head and chuckled a bit at that. That sly boy. Saun had ingested iron, steel, and pewter beforehand, knowing he would soon be able to burn them. He had planned on burning them right after he was completed so he could begin his killing spree right away, knowing how much the transformation to a full Inquisitor would alter his psyche to be more sadistic and psychopathic than before. He was now an unstoppable, bloodthirsty killing machine. Perfect. Except for when he was killing other members of the Inquisition.

Detrare held up the gemstone as Saun landed next to a pair of people who were lying broken and bloodied on the ground. He began tearing away at them, jabbing and slicing with the spikes in his hand, doing everything he could to tear them apart. Detrare Pulled on him even harder than he had on Maim, speaking forcefully into the gemstone, "Stop."

Saun didn't stop. Detrare continued Rioting him and ordering to cease and gain control of himself, but Saun wouldn't listen. He couldn't listen. He was too caught up in his frenzy of bloodlust. At any moment now, he'd start trying to eat the corpses. So Detrare used his secret method of compounding Allomancy. He wasn't fully able to explain how he did it, but it was possible. Instead of greatly magnifying his thinking capability with zinc, he was magnifying his Rioting ability. Now he Pulled harder than ever before, feeling the strain on Saun's mind as it readied to snap.

At that moment, Saun spun around, growling like an animal. He knew someone was trying to control him, and his instincts were pushing him to kill that person. Saun dropped one of the spikes and Pushed on it, soaring through the air up to Detrare with a spike raised in one hand. Detrare Pulled to the breaking point and yelled, "ENOUGH!"

Saun's mind snapped, putting him completely under his father's control like a koloss. He landed in front of Detrare, then instantly dropped the spike and fell to his knees. He looked at the ground in shame. "I'm sorry for my disobedience, Father," Saun said, his voice scratchy and gravelly from both the transformation and all his screaming. But Detrare could see the wobble in his fists. He wasn't truly sorry. He was frustrated beyond compare that he couldn't keep killing right now. The only thing restraining him from tearing apart every living thing he could get near was the control of the gemstone. For now, it was the only thing leashing Saun to a state of calm.

Detrare got down on his knees, looking into Saun's face. He would never get to see the boy's beautiful green eyes shine with joy again. A small sacrifice for a much greater purpose. He reminded himself that this was no longer Saun. He was something more now. "Who are you?" he asked, staring into the new Inquisitor's face.

The Inquisitor slowly raised his head to look at him with his metal eyes. Then a twisted, horrifying, delightful grin splayed out on his face. "I am no longer Saun anymore," he whispered. "Saun just died and became something better. I...am Bloodbath."

"And you are reborn a completed being from the blood of God's sacrifices, Bloodbath," Detrare said proudly. "You will wreak the greatest Ruin out of all of us. May you feast on the blood of your enemies for all the remaining days."

"As soon as I can, my master," Bloodbath seethed.

"Soon, my child," Detrare said, then turned to look at Maim as well. "Very soon..." For tomorrow, the announcement of the Fulfillment would begin.

He looked back down to Bloodbath and sang the lullaby one last time.

_**In me nothing seen, for I cannot be felt, **_

_**Cannot be heard, cannot be smelled, **_

_**I lie behind stars. I walk amongst hills, **_

_**Empty holes I will come to fill. **_

_**I came first. I follow after. **_

_**I end life. I kill laughter. **_

_**What am I? **_

_**...I am Darkness… **_

The day had come. The anticipation was reaching its climax. Detrare had felt excited about his recent transformation, but that was nothing compared to now. The Fulfillment was nigh. He sighed in satisfaction as he felt the new spikes throbbing within him. Eventually, he would no longer notice the pain they granted, just as he had gotten used to the three that were already embedded within him for so many years. They weren't normal Inquisitor spikes, either. He'd had them specifically chosen for their attributes. Now, in addition to his zinc and gold compounding, he had Feruchemical access to steel, pewter, tin, and bendalloy, and Allomantic access to steel and pewter. He planned on putting them to use eventually. But first, the announcement.

As he stood on the misty balcony of the great hall of the fortress, he looked down at the mass assembled below him. Every single member of the New Inquisition who resided in the fortress was gathered, waiting for whatever was going to happen for them. Hundreds of them, each Devoted to the cause, full of Passion, and trained to Ruin. An army of God's warriors all in one place. And now they awaited instructions. Rumors and talk had surfaced over the past few weeks that Detrare was planning on something major happening soon. Now suspicions would be confirmed.

He'd insisted that his closest confidants remain on the balcony with him so he could give them further details later and have them be standing by him when his announcement began. Standing behind him and to his side were Eheron, Bloodbath, Maim, Aloo, Requiem, and Kezeras. The first three were there as Exemplars, Aloo as a trusted bodyguard of sorts, Requiem as a loyal and longtime craftsman of the Inquisition's weapons, and Kezeras as representative of the Exemplar of Passion, her brother Kalazeras; he was currently on Roshar and wouldn't be able to attend.

As the last of the people filed in and waited expectantly, Detrare closed his eyes and breathed in satisfaction. The weight of two objects hung in his robes, waiting to be withdrawn. Soon. Behind him, Aloo and Kezeras had finished raising a tapestry to hang over Detrare's head. He started speaking once it had been properly secured in place and hung for everyone to see.

"My people!" he cried, raising his arms and looking down at the crowd. "For ages, we have prepared and waited for the day that we can accomplish the will of God. We have done so over the years. We've recruited, we have slain, we have burned, and we have ignited Passion for centuries, some of us since the beginning, some of us for decades, some recently. But age does not matter, for God is ageless and His Intent is unchanging. And because of that, we are unchanging in our goal! The only change we will face today is the magnification of that goal. My friends, on this day, THE FULFILLMENT BEGINS!"

For a moment, all was silent. Detrare could almost physically feel the awe sweep through the room. Then a raucous cheer of exultation erupted all around. It was incredibly loud. Delightful. These people's Passions were bursting.

He gestured to the tapestry behind him and turned around to look at the front of it. On it was a map of the cosmere, as provided by the Inquisition's scholars and historians via the Silverlight university. All the star systems and constellations containing all the known Shardworlds dotted it, blending into the swaths of the blue depth of space and the symbols that wove around the constellations. He saw the locations of important worlds such as Scadrial, Roshar, and Sel, as well as lesser, unimportant ones the Inquisition hadn't taken interest in seeking out again, such as Obrodai and Braize. All in all, it was quite a beautiful work of art, the kind that took years of effort and concentration to complete. And indeed it had.

Detrare knew because he had sewn and knitted it. He'd been working on it for the better part of a decade, finally using his own Hemalurgically charged knitting needles to finish it. Its completion a week ago, along with his little defeat at the hands of those Knights at the Horneater Peaks, were two of the main prompts for him to initiate the start of the Fulfillment. "This here is a work of art I have labored on for years. You all know how knitting is one of my many Passions."

A general murmur of assent arose, but the people looked confused when he glanced back at them.

"In the beginning, there was innate Investiture from which the cosmere was formed. And that formation came at the hands of the very manifestation of sentient Investiture, God himself; Adonalsium. He labored to create the many Shardworlds and celestial bodies on which we have resided, bringing form to a chaos of pure energy on a Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual level. But even God knew that His creation couldn't be eternal. He knew there needed to be change, that all that was created needed to come to an end, and we know this because one of His Shards manifested one of the very Intents we seek to fulfill - Ruin!"

A cheer rose up. They were starting to catch on.

"When the Shattering occurred, that piece of God became separated from other Intents and virtues, becoming fully aware of what it needed to be. And it came here, to Scadrial! But it's a piece of God; its influence shouldn't be limited to only one world! God is omnipotent, but only when whole. He needs servants, champions, Exemplars, to carry out His will. And so we have chosen to take upon ourselves fractions of Adonalsium's will, doing our best to fulfill them and continue His divine mandate in our own way!

As members of this organization we have called the New Inquisition, we have Devoted ourselves to one another and to this cause, exemplifying the godly attributes of love, companionship, and loyalty. Devotion is dead, but she may live on in us and our actions! We have given in to our basest and greatest Passions, doing what we love and what brings us pleasure and joy, as well as releasing our own sorrows, anger, and rage with abandonment, therefore exemplifying godly attributes of human emotion! The Shard of Passion is now trapped on Roshar, but we can continue his work across the rest of the worlds! And now, by letting our Devotion and Passion fuel our actions, we seek to bring about Ruin and exemplify the wishes of that Shard by hurrying along the end of what has lived a long and complete existence - the cosmere itself!" The cheers rose higher.

"I stand before you, my friends and comrades, as an agent of our true God and His Shards that we seek to exemplify! For just as Adonalsium labored to form the cosmere, so have I labored to sew this tapestry, and so have I labored to build up this organization. And just as Adonalsium knew that the masterpiece He made which was the universe had to end, so will I celebrate the accomplishment of my great achievement...by destroying it!" He heard footsteps behind him, knowing it was all of his Exemplars and confidants walking to take up torches off the walls, then carry them to the bottom of the tapestry.

"FOR NOTHING IS TRULY COMPLETE UNTIL IT IS DESTROYED," Detrare proclaimed triumphantly. The people below cheered and hooted, watching as the large cloth design of the cosmere began to go up in flames. "The fires of our Passion and our Devotion to the cause of Ruin will rage across the cosmere, and all will know the flame of God's divine will as the heat of it consumes all the worlds we will reach across! Long ago, Ruin itself nearly succeeded and ended Scadrial, then would have moved on to other worlds, but his plans were halted, and now his divine, glorious, destructive power is held by one who is too impotent to use it! Pathetic!"

Now there were shouts of anger. Detrare had made sure to distill within everyone a disdain, even a hatred, of Harmony. For what was a God who barely acted on what His Intents would urge Him to do? Useless. The only problem in opposition to that was something that had once given Detrare a fear of Harmony alongside his disdain. Because they all used Hemalurgy, that would have left risk for Harmony's interference, and, assuming He would do anything, would do what He could to stop the Inquisition from accomplishing its goal in an attempt to balance Ruin with Preservation. But Detrare didn't want that. He couldn't allow it. All things needed to change, end. Fortunately, Harmony's interference was no longer a worry for Detrare. It hadn't been for ages.

"So now, we will finish what Ruin started, and I know we can because I trust you! I know that each and every one of you is Devoted to this cause, trained all your lives to be agents of destruction, filled with a fiery, God-given Passion. But I also know that we can fulfill God's will, and I know that it must be done...for we have a part of God with us!" With a flair, Detrare reached into his robes and pulled out the wooden box, then opened it to let the piercing red-violet light gleam out of it. He pulled out the glorious gemstone and tossed the box aside, holding it high above his head. This gemstone, with the Splinter inside, was exactly what allowed him to influence all members of the Inquisition without any influence from Harmony. "Within this orb is a Splinter of Ruin, a very fraction of a fraction of Adonalsium himself! However limited his power may now be, GOD IS ON OUR SIDE!"

The cheering intensified, and Detrare felt the energy in the room wash over him as the shouts of joyous Passion rang all around him. He didn't even need to Riot them. Glorious. The heat of raw human emotion washed over him with almost as much physical force as the heat of the tapestry burning and withering away directly behind him. But he would excite them even more still. The surprises were yet to stop coming.

"And so, we will start our march tomorrow, bringing death and destruction to Scadrial like we never have before! No longer will we remain in the shadows, seeding chaos in the background. We will step out and into the light, and will _become_ the light! We will become the fire that everyone will feel the heat of! We will charge side by side, united in our Devotion," he emphasized that word while walking to Eheron, "and we will each do our part to do as much destruction as possible, no matter our standing, our ranking, our physical stature, or our ability to manipulate Investiture." He handed the gemstone to Eheron. "For our Exemplars will lead us through, with me at their side! I will fight at the head of you to bring chaos with all my power!" And with that, he threw off his cloak, revealing the many spikes within him as he proudly stood bare-chested. "For I am an Exemplar of Ruin, filled with power and ready to unleash it! With each step of our journey of destruction, I will add to it, growing in power as I kill more and destroy more, just like all of you! By wreaking death and desolation, we will only grow stronger!"

The crowd stood in shock for just a moment, then exploded into cheers with the force of an ashmount's eruption. The people hadn't expected their own leader to be an Inquisitor now. Most of them had rather seen him as the one who directed the Hemalurgy and creation of Inquisitors, but not one of them. Now Detrare began Rioting all of them. They were caught up in their fury of excitement, rage, and a desire to destroy. He needed to keep that momentum going. He wasn't even subtle about how much he was Pulling on their emotions, but even if they noticed, they wouldn't care.

He reached down into his robes and pulled out his aluminum mask, the one designed to match the legendary description of Adonalsium's face. "The unsuspecting denizens of the cosmere will not know what is to come, but when it does, they will see the face of God in the form of all of us. They will see the true face of Adonalsium himself as we slaughter them and tear apart their worlds! We will not seek for dominion over anything, but WE WILL BE THE DOMINANT FORCE IN THE COSMERE!"

Detrare fastened the mask to his face, covering his own likeness with that of the God he had sought for so long to fulfill the will of. Then he retrieved the gemstone from Eheron and walked over to the very edge of the balcony, holding it proudly over his head. He was a sight to see, filled with Hemalurgic spikes, donning the glorious aluminum face of God himself, and holding up the vessel for a piece of Ruin itself. He felt the power within him, the power the orb gave him. When he spoke again, the mask muffled his words a bit, but it didn't matter. "AND WE WILL BATHE THE UNIVERSE IN THE BLOOD OF ALL THAT LIVES AND THE ASHEN REMAINS OF ALL THAT DOESN'T!"

The force of the crowd's enthusiasm could not be held within the room, probably not within anywhere in the cosmere. Detrare sighed in pleasure as this monumental event came to pass for all of them. _And I will be God_, he thought to himself, closing his eyes and reveling in the joy of the moment. This was a moment that would last to the end of his days, a moment that would continue as long as the Fulfillment continued. Adonalsium's will was made manifest in him. He deserved to be recognized as a god for all he had done. For now, thanks to him and all he had done, the Fulfillment was underway. And the universe would shake from the effect of the actions he would lead.

For about a minute, Detrare just stood there, letting the Passion consume him. This...this was true joy. But he had to get to business now, unfortunately, so the glorious moment had to be put on pause. He shouted again, even though his throat was getting sore from having screamed so much already. He also knew he couldn't exhaust these peoples' Passion and energy too soon with the events transpiring now when they were to begin tomorrow. Which was why he was going to give them all a break for tonight. A night to give into all their other Passions with utter frivolity one last time. That was what he was going to announce now.

"But listen to me now!" he yelled, speaking into the gemstone so the words would pierce their souls as well as their ears. After a few moments, the raucous frenzy died down somewhat. "As much as I'd love for you to release your Passion, I can't let us weary ourselves too much before we begin tomorrow. And I know that destruction and chaos aren't your only Passions - well, at least for many of you. I can't say the same for some." He gestured to Bloodbath behind him, who just grinned. Some people in the crowd laughed at that.

"So tonight, I invite you all to do whatever else you want to do, so long as it doesn't weaken you to our cause, whatever your Passion wills you to do. Have one more night of fun before the true work begins. After all, it's rewarding to serve God, and we've all done it so well already. The options are many. You want to feast upon food and gorge yourselves on gluttony until your stomachs can't hold it? We have all of our rations prepared for a bounteous feast of glorious proportions over in the kitchen rooms and down in the Conventical! Go and eat and be merry! I know that's what I'm going to be doing!" He patted his stomach, provoking more laughter.

"You want to enjoy yourself in the comfort of reading a book, a historical account, a scientific article, or whatever we have to read? The fortress's libraries and record-keeping rooms are open and waiting! You want to sate your carnal pleasures with some of our imported slaves? Go down to the dungeons and have all your fun with them! You want to spike them or torture them to death instead? Go and do! You want to wrestle with our koloss or play with some of our creatures in the basement? Feel free to, so long as you keep your distance from the nightmaw! But now is the time to do what you want and give into your Passions!" It was shameless advertising of good, glorious fun, but they all loved it.

"And when we've all feasted on these delights and gotten our proper rest, we will arise, take up our weapons, drink our metals, breathe in our Stormlight, do all we need to get ready for attack, then march out to begin the war on the cosmere that is the Fulfillment, starting with the pathetic Ire and the irritating Knights of the Cosmere!" The cheers escalated once again. Would they ever stop? Detrare hoped not. This was a good Passion. "Which leads me to one more minor announcement," he proclaimed. "From now and forever onward, we are no longer called the 'Inquisition!'" There was yet another pause of confusion where the cheers cut off a bit, and Detrare continued after a beat.

"That name we have borne for so long was admittedly only a placeholder, a title to use for lack of a better one because what we have done was so similar to the Inquisition of the Steel Ministry of so long ago. To the few out there who know of our existence, that's all they know us as: a New Inquisition. They cannot fathom our true purpose. So from now on, the title of the 'Inquisition' is a thing of the past, and we will take upon ourselves the name of the 'Fulfillment', for that is WHAT WE ARE!" True joy. True glory. The Fulfillment's victory was surely at hand. Tomorrow, it would all begin. The beginning of the end.

"Now go!" Detrare waved them all off. "What are you still waiting for? Enjoy the night while it's young!" He would be monitoring them to make sure their behavior didn't get too out of hand or detrimental using the gemstone, so he needn't worry. He had promised the people that they could do what they wanted with their slaves and prisoners, which made him wonder; what would end up happening to poor little Teshani? Would she end up as fodder for someone's torture devices? Whatever the case was, Detrare had given up on interrogating her. Now she could be one of the first to suffer with the start of the Fulfillment. Though she was quite isolated from the other prisoners. Perhaps it would be a while before they got to her.

No matter. As the crowd filed out of the great hall, whooping and jeering, Detrare turned to his Exemplars and confidants, who were readying to leave. Above them, the tapestry was completely blackened and burning, ready to collapse and dissolve into ash. Just like the cosmere it was modeled after. "Before all of you join them and have your fun," he said with a more businesslike tone, stopping them in their tracks, "I need you to come with me. We must discuss the nature of how we are going to proceed with the Fulfillment and exactly what it is. In my main office, please."


	12. Flashbacks and Plans

**Phoenix:** Saodin surveyed his underground lab on the outskirts of Elendel. Little did those living peacefully in the grand city know that but a mere ten miles away, the lost art of Hemalurgy was being practiced. His research into the art had been ongoing for five years now, after Saodin had realized that Harmony had become preoccupied with an external source. Since then, he and his followers had resurrected the practicing of the art.

Saodin had no intention of restoring the Inquisition, nor did he wish to kill without purpose. He had become a better man since his days on Nalthis, although the Breaths gained through his operations there _did_ come in handy. Those who were sacrificed, he made sure were the sick, dying or estranged if he could help it. Although the noble bloodlines were certainly much richer in Investiture, so he had sent agents to collect those from time to time, always covering up the disappearance.

Besides, he wasn't the only one collecting those with Investiture. He had learned of another group, which called itself the Set, which wae doing similar activities; although he had no idea as to their plans. The work had been painstakingly long, as the one called Ironeyes carried most of the surviving information concerning Hemalurgy, but was acting as an agent of Harmony. Therefore, Saodin would not risk any confrontation with the one named Death.

Saodin watched as one of his most promising acolytes, a fellow Elantrian named Detrare, drove a large spike through the upper back of one of one of his most recent acquisitions. The man, with surprising agility, then swiftly pulled out the spike and drove it into the torso of a curious-looking creature with carapace on the next cot over. This would be his first time experimenting on a non-humanoid and Saodin was very interested to see the results.

Detrare came over and reported, "The second of three spikes have now been correctly placed, sir. Where should the third and final spike be driven again? Oh wait, I remember, along this axis on the upper back, right?"

"Yes, exactly! You have been studying well, I see." Yes, this one would be promising indeed. Saodin walked into the next room.

In this one, much smaller spikes were being driven in a test subject in very specific locations on the body. He had learned of these binding points through the capture of a renegade koloss in the Roughs. Continuing down deeper into the cavern, he came upon rows of cells where the transformation of some of his earlier subjects was already taking place. Many had unfortunately died at first, as it took Saodin a while to get the points exactly right. It was a shame the mistwraiths had all died out; it would have been interesting to learn about the kandra. But then again, they were also agents of Harmony, so best to leave those alone.

Saodin was proud of his work here, and hoped to one day become a true master of Hemalurgy. Why, he himself lacked only a few of all the Feruchemical attributes, well on his way to becoming a full Feruchemist. Tomorrow, he would obtain the rest, and then once the Allomantic abilities performed better in his experiments, he would apply those as well. Currently, Saodin had more spikes than any of the others, but he was careful to never have more than a few at a time lest Harmony become aware of their efforts.

To counter this, he would make periodic trips back to his lab in Elantris, where his use of the Dor could make the changes to his spiritweb permanent, and the healing the Dor offered could immediately repair any damage from the removal of the spikes. He could then return to experiment anew. Of course, he wouldn't offer this boon to any of the others - Saodin could not risk any one of them growing more powerful than himself. They would need to make do with the two or three spikes they had been bestowed with.

Saodin had come far since so long ago when he was barely alive, living a life worse than death on the streets of Elantris. But he had risen from those ashes in glory and splendor, and nothing could stop him from the greatness that was soon to come!

**Ene:** I inhaled and held it for a minute before releasing. We were here. It was almost time. But time for what? I did have some idea of what we were facing. Beyond that, saving Tesh, even if I didn't know her, was worth it. And what if there were other innocent prisoners? The others might have come for their friend, but she probably wasn't the only one there.

Still, I began to have doubts. I had combat experience, and I had - I winced. I had killed.

_It wasn't your fault, _whispered a little voice in my head. _You weren't the one to land the blow. You weren't the one who stabbed him right in the heart. _

But I had still caused it. It had been done to make a point. It had been done to reprimand me. It had happened because of me.

If I was driftwood, then this was a wave. Normally I could weather the waves of life. I bobbed to the top every time, trying to help whatever others I could. But this time the wave wasn't water. I was denser.

I was going to sink.

**Mist:** Something had shifted in Diona's eyes. No longer did they hold that soft, yet fiery spark, determined and strong. Something had pulled her under, so the darkness broke over her head. Dawn put an arm around her in what he hoped was a supportive gesture. They both had to stay afloat together. If they didn't, the coming storm would surely drown them.

**Ene:** Dawn put one arm around me comfortingly. I was supposed to be the one helping him. But perhaps by helping me, he was helped. Whether it was true or not, I clung to him. As one of his Aviar roosted in my hair, I hugged him. As the others around us prepared for what was about to happen, I let him be my driftwood, light enough to bring us above the ocean. Maybe together, we'd have enough buoyancy to fly?

Because with what was to come...I shivered. Even flying might not help us now. There might be nothing that could help us. But for the first time in my life, I accepted that it might not be possible to help everyone. Even if that meant myself. For now, we would fly. I raised my head high, to stare at the hopeless Shadesmar sky. Then I bowed it, to see Dawn again. Still on the ground, in danger of drowning. There was no flight to be had here. But if he was here, staying afloat was enough. I was ready.

"Dawn," I said quietly to him. Was this the first time I had called him by his name out loud? "What's your full name?"

**Tesh:** Mahshi glances over at Diona. She seems so small, sitting at the edge at the camp. He crosses his legs and pulls a small book out of his bag. They're so, so close, but the plan isn't quite ready.

Mahshi flips open the book to a page with a strip of cloth making it. The book is on what is known of the Dawnchant; a very recent book. He found it in Tesh's bag before they left. He begins to read.

**Mist:** Dawn looked at Diona, slightly surprised by the question. "Fourth of the Dawn," he replied. Her eyes had acquired a slightly different light. Soft, but with a faint twinge of emotion mixed in. An expression he hadn't been given in years. "You?"

**Ene:** "Diona Rokni," I return. "I inherited the last name from my guardian."

_I am _not _your father, girl. Don't pin your existence on me. _

I find myself wanting to confide in Dawn. It can't have been more than a few weeks at most that we've known each other, and we've been on speaking terms for only part of that. But there's something about this man that just makes me want to trust him. It's not emotional Allomancy, just...natural human acceptance.

I open my mouth slowly. "I follow the Path. I mean - not a lot or anything, just so-so. Seems...reasonable...and all. You do too, right?"

**Mist:** Dawn nodded. "I don't worship Harmony so much as...respect him." He had been given the choice to follow any religion as a child, from the Eelakin religion to those in the Scadrian Words of Founding. His father said it's what Sazed wanted for the world. Dawn had no idea who that was, but his father has always spoke of him with great respect.

The Path has always made sense to him, and since his father was Pathian, it had been a good fit. Dawn pulled his earring out of a pocket and placed it on his open palm, held toward Diona.

**Ene:** Dawn held out an earring. I accepted it, turning it over in my palm, studying it. I'd never worn one.

I went to hand it back to him. "Respecting him sounds...good." A heartbeat. I didn't want to hurt him, and speaking of his family certainly did so, but I had to know. "Your parents...and the three siblings before you...did you love them?"

Love was a confusing thing to consider, to me. I knew it was felt among families. And I figured that he knew it with his own, because of how he hurt for them. Of course, that didn't have to be true. You could miss someone you hadn't known. You could even miss someone you had hated; someone you still did.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sat and waited near the fortress for what seemed like an eternity. He had discovered that his former pupil was behind this New Inquisition, but now that he actually had time to think, the reality of that was sinking in. Was he ultimately responsible for this? Would Detrare have come as far as he had without Phoenix's influence on the man?

Phoenix shuddered. He had been a completely different person then. He'd made far too many advances in the name of science that were, in reality, atrocities. He'd tried to bury that past once, tried to convince himself that he had truly changed. But had he? Phoenix still felt guilty for spiking a near-death Coinshot to gain his abilities, even though he had sincerely tried to save the man first. It gave him too much of a glimpse of the monster he had once been. And now here they were, preparing to battle against the monster he had unwittingly created.

Saodin stopped by the office of his head Hemalurgist, Detrare. "Anything to report?" Saodin asked.

"Anything to report? Let's see, you're still limiting us to only three spikes each even after all these years, so I'm not sure what you expect, _sir_. We have to wait until we can find a suitable new recruit just to perform new tests!"

Saodin thought for a long moment, then sighed. "Very well. One additional spike per member. But that is all, is that clear?"

"Very," said the man. "Fortunately, not all is lost on our timeline. Some of us already have additional spikes, including myself, of course." Seeing Saodin's seething stare, he added, "Did you really expect us to wait until you finally came around to reason?"

Saodin stared at Detrare darkly. "You are where you are now because of me. Don't ever forget that, and do not _ever_ practice such insubordination again!"

Detrare simply smiled. "Whatever you say, sir. At least _I'm_ producing results. You rarely even come to the main lab anymore, and frequently you are off on some research trip. Well, in my personal opinion, I've done you a huge favor. And by the way, I owe you nothing. Without my skill, you would not have made it this far, and you know it."

Phoenix stared at the man for a long moment. "Fine. Increase the spike number to five, but only to the first few. But I expect results within three weeks, and not a moment later!"

Detrare met Phoenix's eyes with a defiant, almost victorious stare. "Of course, sir. You are _most _wise."

Saodin, exhausted, entered the private sleeping area of his laboratory for the night.

"You haven't made the progress you agreed to," said a voice from the dark. "Your study of the lost art was to bring results."

Saodin smiled as he recognized the voice. "Yulin, only you'd have the resourcefulness to slip past my guards. Do not worry, you will have your report soon."

"Soon?" The petite young woman answered. "That was your answer last month. Our timeline cannot be impeded. You only have a month left before your deadline, and it cannot be delayed."

Saodin shrugged. "So why do they keep sending you then? Or are you really volunteering just for the excuse to see me again? Really, did they even send you to check up on me this time?"

He could almost see a smile behind the woman's mask before she responded. "Does it matter? I _would_ really hate for you to miss your deadline though. Then the next time we spend a night together I would be _forced_ to strangle you in your sleep. Business before pleasure, you understand."

"You could certainly try," Saodin retorted with a sly grin.

Yulin leaned forward and whispered, "I wouldn't test me, if I were you. The Ghostbloods would kill me if they ever found out I disobeyed orders. And you know as well as I do that they _always_ find out."

"That outcome remains to be seen. For now, though, it is late, and surely you do not wish to travel at night."

"Yes, I suppose it is. I won't have to kill you tonight, anyway."

**Fire:** In the city of Luthadel, about 320 years ago, in the days of the Final Empire, a few years before the Collapse and subsequent Catacendre that occurred a few years thereafter, a round-faced and jovial young obligator strolled excitedly through the headquarter building of the Canton of Inquisition. He was finally going to apply for the Soothing stations that were dotted throughout the city.

He was finally going to receive one of the most secretive and coveted positions in the Canton: the position of enforcing the choking hand of depression and oppression upon those pathetic little skaa. After all, he was already a very accomplished Allomancer of emotions, never mind the fact that he was a Rioter applying for a Soothing station. They couldn't say no to him now. He was already a member of the Inquisition and his credentials were practically perfect. They needed someone like him.

The obligator walked through the open doorway, where the high prelan was expecting him. The prelan was a calm-looking man with a stern, pointed face and black tattoos covering over half his head. A stark red one ran along his temple to indicate his high ranking within the Canton of Inquisition. The man looked at him imperiously, and the young obligator smiled back at him. The high prelan said nothing for a moment, so the obligator spoke first. "Prelan Presin, I presume you understand why I am here."

Without any change of expression, Presin answered, "I do indeed, Detrare. Though you should not be so presumptuous about such things. Such as your place in this Canton."

Detrare frowned. "And what do you mean by that?"

Presin handed a paper to him. Detrare saw that it contained his own credentials. "Most obligators are satisfied with the positions they receive," Presin said, "and it is not often we see one petition for another one, as positions such as the Soothing stations are usually assigned. You are already very skilled in your understanding of bindpoints and instruction of administration of Hemalurgic spikes. All in all, it's impressive work you've done so far. So after very brief consideration..."

_Yes, finally_, Detrare thought, trying to keep from smiling.

"I have concluded that you are unfit to join your fellow obligators in the Soothing stations."

Detrare started. "What? I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me," Presin said, raising an eyebrow. "What is it I told you about being presumptuous?"

Detrare bowed his head. "Forgive me, my lord, but for what purpose did you come to this decision?"

"You are not a Soother," Presin replied immediately.

Detrare fumbled. "That...that's the only reason why? But - you've obviously seen my credentials, and you know that I am fit to serve and that I am utterly devoted to the cause of our Ministry! Must my status as a Misting decide my fate?"

Presin didn't skip a beat. He wearily said, "Detrare, those are the Soothing stations and you are a Rioter. The standard protocol dictates that Soothers are the ones who are to dampen the strong emotions of the skaa in those stations, and the last time I read your information, which was right as you walked in here, you burn zinc and not brass."

"But one can produce the same effects of Soothing with Rioting," Detrare countered, growing agitated.

"Don't be silly," Presin said with a wave of his hand. "We are meant to suppress the skaa, to keep their heads hung low. How do you expect to do that by inflaming their emotions?"

"By Rioting their sense of fear and their willingness to comply, of course." Detrare had prepared that answer, knowing beforehand it would probably be asked of him.

Presin seemed to think on that for a moment, then shook his head. "I cannot change the protocol, just as you cannot change the fact that you are a Rioter. Now leave and return to your existing duties. You've bothered me enough."

Detrare stood up angrily, stoking his zinc and preparing to Pull on the prelan. "I want to serve my Ministry. Why is it so wrong to wish that? Why can't you change the protocol to fit that? Think of how much more I could do to serve in that case!" He gave a small tug on the man's compassion, hoping vainly that he would consider it.

Presin frowned at him. "You should know better than to try Rioting one of your superiors, especially one who burns copper and is trained to recognize when his emotions are being affected. Yours is a power not to be misused as such."

"And you would have it be a power not to be used at all," Detrare hissed. This was wanted he wanted to do in his life. Why couldn't he get others to understand that you could promote docility, suppression, and fear through inflaming people's emotions instead of dampening them? There was so much more that could happen when someone's emotions were being inflamed!

"I have made myself clear, Detrare," Presin said, standing up as well. "Leave now, or you will be forcefully removed by one of our elites, and none too kindly. Even if you were a Soother, you don't seem emotionally fit enough to do the job. You will not serve in the stations, though I admire your tenacity. Put your devotion somewhere else where you are better suited."

Detrare's face was turning red. They weren't letting him achieve his goal because of some mundane standard protocol. "All because of the unnecessary protocol," he spat, turning and striding out of the room. As he walked down the hallways, he passed by an Inquisitor holding an axe. He sneered at it, implying his disdain for its authority. After all, he knew how to create them. He knew them better than they knew themselves.

That sneer earned a spike-eyed glare from the creature, who gripped its axe more tightly. Detrare didn't care. He was too angry to care. Presin's last words to him echoed in his head. _Put your devotion somewhere else where you are better suited… _

Put his devotion somewhere else. Then Detrare recalled another thought he'd had in that room that didn't sound right to him at first. There was so much more that could happen when someone's emotions were being inflamed…

Then the seeds of a new train of thought began to cycle through the young obligator's head. He _could_ put his dedication somewhere other than where he was. Besides, why should he be at a Soothing station? The skaa people shouldn't have their emotions suppressed. They may have been skaa, but they were still human. Detrare was a Rioter. He made people's emotions grow, and that was how humans functioned. Humanity came from emotion.

As days passed, ideas led to other ideas, and from that time forward, Detrare was increasingly dissatisfied with the Steel Ministry. He found himself wanting the skaa to rise up and revolt. He wanted the Ministry to fall. For nothing happened worth happening when everyone followed the standard protocol and no one acted on their emotions. As a Rioter, Detrare didn't like that. Changes needed to be made.

So when the skaa rebellion finally came, he welcomed it.

After situating everyone in his office room, Detrare stepped back out to remind all the Feruchemists to spend their time storing their attributes as needed and for Sanrin and Lenali to stock up on Stormlight - or at least, their alternate form of it. Then he ordered Sanrin to go scouting around the base, as he knew the Skybreaker had a Passion for doing, and ordered Lenali to come to the meeting as well.

As he returned to the office, he felt a tension in the room. He could sense anticipation around him. That was mostly from Maim and Bloodbath, who were itching for some bloody action as soon as they could get it. Poor Bloodbath, having to wait as long as he did. But things needed to be explained. He could also tell that Eheron was curious as to what Detrare's explanation would be. That boy had always been a curious one. Aloo simply served as a loyal bodyguard of sorts. A lesser Exemplar of Devotion to Eheron.

Lenali needed to know because she was the Inquisition's primary source of transportation between the Cognitive and Physical Realms. Kezeras and Requiem may not have been as interested, but they needed to know these things just as well as the Exemplars, for they had a part to play should there ever be a need for...contingencies. There were a few others present, other military leaders and tactician figures, but Detrare wasn't going to focus on how they were feeling. They already knew a bit more about the grand plan than the others.

Detrare sat down at his chair, indicating for everyone else to sit down. Even though there weren't any more chairs, they obeyed without question. Detrare always felt a great satisfaction at that. The only thing that didn't satisfy him completely right now was the mask still being on his face. Yes, it displayed a message of Adonalsium living on in him, but it made it just a bit harder to breathe out of his nose, somewhat muffled his voice, and limited his peripheral vision.

"I have already told you that we march on the Ire tomorrow, but I haven't told you what comes next. You see, the Fulfillment must be as extensive as possible, but our reach cannot extend everywhere. It has been rather difficult to access Taldain, First of the Sun, and Obrodai for a long time now, and I suspect they are all because of a particular Shard of God we don't normally acknowledge. But that is beside the point.

As strong as we are when united, we are not invincible. Our Passion and Devotion may be infinite, but our numbers and resources are unfortunately finite. Be that as it is, the Fulfillment will fight to the very last man, to the very last breath. We won't destroy the entire cosmere, as that is far beyond our ability; but we will do all we can to bring as much Ruin as possible. And so, our efforts to do so must be allocated.

Every one of our members designated to Scadrial are gathered here in our fortress, just as members on other worlds are gathered and ready to join their forces to ours. Our power will grow as we spread our influence, our impact becoming greater and more terrible with each world we reach. Tomorrow, we start the Fulfillment by destroying all other presences established in the Expanse of the Vapors, first and foremost the Ire.

The ragtag Knights of the Cosmere are surely in the Expanse of the Vapors as well, as evidenced by our unwitting mole's location. We will give all of them the offer of joining us in pursuing God's will, and if they refuse, we eradicate them all without quarter. The only exception will be some of those who are Invested, who we'll spike instead. If they become too much of a danger to do that, we will simply have to kill them and let that power go to waste. Whatever the case, we will end up destroying all of them anyway. The only difference would be how much longer they are an asset to us before dying."

Detrare stood up and walked over to the table on the other side of the room, where Eheron had previously placed the definitive map of the cosmere Detrare had based his tapestry on, gesturing for the others to circle around it. They obeyed without question. Good. "And once the Ire, the Knights, and anyone else living in the Cognitive Realm of Scadrial has been converted or obliterated, then we will move onto the second phase of the Fulfillment. The Ruin of the planet itself in the Physical Realm."

Detrare picked up a quill and drew a line across Scadrial on the map, crossing it out. He set down the quill and stood in silence for a moment as he thought. Then he reached up and took the mask off his face, setting it down on the table and leaning forward with a more relaxed posture. "Our influence here will be a little less direct than it will be on other worlds, because we won't need to do all the work. The Scadrians will do much of it for us. I became aware of this after Mask's excursion in his brief time serving us.

He went to a city alone with only his spikes, mask, and armaments, not even given clear directions. But he worked in the shadows as a force of death, killing specific people with great influence in the city here and there. As a result, riots began. People began attacking each other, ransacking homes and shops, burning buildings to the ground. The entire city was engulfed in chaos, and Mask barely had to do anything to trigger it. He brought Ruin directly by killing a select few people, which paved the way for so much more Ruin to engulf that city without his direct action. Why was it so easy? I wondered that briefly until I understood the state of things.

Everyone living in Northern Scadrial, sequestered within their perfect little Elendel Basin, is wallowing in a corrupted capitalist society similar to the one they lived in a few hundred years ago in the Final Empire. There are the nobles in the form of the rich and influential, and the skaa in the form of the poor, downtrodden, and discarded. They work for the rich, laboring with all their might just to make a meager living to sustain themselves and their families. The severity of that system only grows with each passing year.

It benefits the rich greatly, but it begins to eat away at the poor. They get angry. They get fed up with their unfair treatment. They start wanting change, to rebel and to overthrow the mighty. Their Passion is heated to the boiling point, the fuel burning within them and wanting to rage out in the hopes that it will at least make a change. They only need a spark. In that city suffering under that corrupted system, Mask killed a few men of power, undermining the authority of that settlement. The people finally had their chance.

Chaos ensued. Riots began. The downtrodden finally got the chance to make a change, but they didn't know how, so they just began wildly Ruining things. All thanks to the interference of a single Inquisitor with a loose agenda. If so much chaos could be accomplished in a city because of the influence of only one of our members, then imagine what is possible for the world with the influence of even a thousand of our most dedicated forces.

We will sow chaos, making random strikes, killing random citizens both rich and poor, starting fires in largely populated areas. Then we will simply have to watch and enjoy as the people of Northern Scadrial do our work for us. They will turn on each other and madly cause Ruin in an effort to change. Change that their world needs. Change that has always been the purpose of the nature of the Shard of Ruin.

Once it become chaotic enough and anarchy engulfs the people, we will make our move and end their suffering - by killing all of them, spiking every single Metalborn we can find until Northern Scadrial is destroyed and the only Allomancers and Feruchemists remaining in the cosmere will be the ones within our own Inquisition. We will sweep all life off the face of the land, and they will powerless to stop us because of how much they are already tearing each other apart." Detrare picked up the quill and drew another line across Scadrial, making an X mark.

"And our work will be done for that part. Then comes the third step, one which diverges into separate pursuits. We will divide into three separate groups, one of which remains on Scadrial to continue onto Southern Scadrial. The other two will each go to Nalthis and Roshar, where we have many other agents planted. They will each join forces that we may simultaneously bring the greatest change to three of the greatest Shardworlds. But before we reach those worlds in the Physical Realm, we will eradicate every other minor establishment set up across the entire Cognitive Realm set up by other worldhopping groups, cutting them off from their sources, slaughtering their inhabitants, and crushing all of their fortresses, saving the most notable for last." He drew a line from Scadrial to Nalthis, then another from Scadrial to Roshar. "Does this all make sense so far? Are there any questions or commentary?"

**Quick:** "We have other plans to Ruin Nalthis and Roshar?" Eheron checked.

**Fire:** "Yes, I'm glad you asked," Detrare replied, smiling. The Elantrian was focused, determined, and willing to ask questions. His Devotion was a more subtle one. It wasn't that he blindly obeyed all commands without question, as some of the other overtly Devoted members would do. He only ever questioned his master for confirmation in order to further plans. "I will get to other worldhopping divisions later. Now, we have a special case with Roshar. It is already being Ruined. It is engulfed in war following the advent of the Everstorm. The Shard of Passion itself has been released and now reigns dominant in the Rosharan system. The Voidbringers have returned to raze the world one final time in an effort to take over their world, and humanity will do all it can to defend it.

That war alone has already brought and will continue to bring much devastation to that world even without our interference. And with Passion himself - better known as Odium - now freed and the Voidbringers bathing that world in their rage, the Passions of all living things are being incited to action. Which is why the division of our numbers going to Roshar are going to side with the Voidbringers and help them destroy human civilization. In anticipation of this, our Exemplar of Passion, Kalazeras, has already begun inciting the Passions of men and women on that world and manipulating their emotions and the spren around them to drive them to a fury that will bring Ruin to all they come across.

Even now, he continues to build up that army, ready to ally themselves to the Voidbringers and attack the human nations. Our numbers will arrive to further strengthen their force and bring as much Ruin as possible in order to help the Voidbringers achieve their objective. This is where compromises have to be made. In bringing Ruin to the cosmere, it is our objective to make sure all things meet their end. Even the parsh people. Even the Voidbringers. Unfortunately, with the Everstorm now sweeping over Roshar, they can continually return after death, according to Kala's reports. They are a force that cannot be stopped, even with all of our numbers.

And so, we must forgo bringing Ruin to them, and therefore must avoid bringing the Fulfillment to their homeworld, Braize. Any expedition we have attempted their before has only brought our numbers a death that is almost instant. So we will let the Voidbringers have their way. They will meet their own Ruin soon enough fighting mankind on Roshar. Until we help them eradicate all those who would oppose them. The Knights Radiant have been refounded, and their oaths are being spoken. They are trying to unite the nations of their world against the Voidbringers. We must prevent that.

We have no reason to fear the Radiants, especially since we have Surgebinders of our own, and because these Knights Radiant are only a small, ragtag team that strains against itself and groans under the weight of its members' own worldly troubles. They will be no more of an issue to us than the little band calling themselves Knights of the Cosmere. They will be simply swept away by the fires of our Passion and that of the Voidbringers."

Detrare glanced down at the mask, resting his hand on it. _And perhaps_, he thought to himself, _our work will be good enough to get the attention of Passion himself. _Perhaps he would actually be able to meet the one they called Odium. As a humble servant and worshipper, of course. With the Shard of Devotion dead and Ruin fused to Preservation, Passion was the only Shard actively acting upon its Intent, and was therefore the only one Detrare felt worthy of looking to as a substitute for Adonalsium. But that was beside the point. He needed to think of the larger picture. He drew an X over Roshar as he had done to Scadrial, indicating its future Ruination.

"At that same time, another third of our forces will make our strike on Nalthis. That world is still shaking from the effects of wars and tensions, and only recently has it recovered from its most recent great conflict - a rebellion of the downtrodden Pahn Kahl people that we even helped a bit with. The nations of Pahn Kahl, Hallandren, Idris, the people of Huth and Kuth, and others have been at war for long enough already. I consider their Manywar to be the closest we've ever had to the Fulfillment happening so far, and we had nothing to do with it! But reinitiating another Manywar is possible. It nearly happened with that rebellion, were it not for the interference of that Returned Warbreaker and others involved. But it still can be accomplished. You are from Hallandren, Maim. Tell us, how easy it would be with some of our forces already settled there?"

Maim stepped forward and smiled. "I think we'll have the easiest time with this one. My old mercenary friend played a big part in that rebellion, and he's a lot like me when it comes to Ruining things. He might as well be a member of the Inquisition, though I...don't know what his current status is."

Detrare smiled back at him. "Good boy." He looked at the others, who circled around. "With our numbers already hiding in the Nalthian cities, united with our added force, and easily recruiting others such as Maim's friend, we can play the people of that world into reviving conflicts with one another that escalate into another Manywar as our acts of terror escalate. The nations have always been looking for a reason to go to war, and now they will continue to, with us at the head of it. There were many political reasons for that Manywar, but ours will just be utter, unreasonable chaos. Before the chaos gets too out of hand, we'll pull our own forces out of it."

One of the head tacticians, a thin Veden man named Mahah, cocked his head. "Why?"

Detrare pointed to him. "I am glad you asked. It doesn't seem reasonable, does it?" he asked everyone else.

They shook their heads.

He made a fist and scowled, remembering this particular thorn in the side of the plan. "The problem is, we have a great obstacle in the way of success on Nalthis, the same obstacle that prevented the fallout of the Pahn Kahl rebellion. Kalad's Phantoms, the Awakened stone statue army known as the D'Denir. An invincible and unstoppable fighting force, even for one such as us, able to be controlled by the Returned. We will need to pull out of the conflict before they can eliminate our forces there, which means we must ensure the continuation of the cycle of Ruin without our direct influence after that. We need to cause just as much mayhem and destruction that no nation will be able to stop it, and what remains of the people of Nalthis once we're done with them will slaughter each other.

In the meantime, we will also do our best to burn away that world's entire supply of the Tears of Edgli, which I believe are the focus of the Shard Endowment. And on that note, we needn't worry about that one. Endowment seems to prefer nonintervention. But the Tears need to be destroyed, as well as much forestry and wildlife as possible. We need to focus on more than just the people. This applies to every world, mind you. We are also attacking animals, nature, buildings, everything that can be destroyed. Yes, we are killing indiscriminately, but that is only a part of our intended Ruin. This is why our arsenals include a lot of explosives as well. I find those to be the best way to start terrorist acts."

Detrare took a deep breath, leaning over the table. He was doing a lot of standing and talking now. It was already getting exhausting, and his speech was starting to wander between topics. If only he could tap wakefulness, if he had ever gotten that spike. So he picked up the quill and drew an X over Nalthis, then walked back to his desk and sat behind the chair. "Let's sit now, shall we? I'm feeling a bit tired, and I need to rest my legs. Now, back to Scadrial."

He waited until everyone had sat back down again. He took a breath and reminded himself to get a good night's sleep once he was done partying away. He could already imagine himself eating plentifully for hours on end. That was the reason he'd gotten the spiked ability of Feruchemical bendalloy. Eating was one of his Passions, and once he started storing nutrition in his spike, he would be able to feast as much as he wanted. He wanted meat right now, and lots of it. But that was yet to come, and Detrare was patient. Important things had to be done first. Besides, he was excited to explain all of this as well.

"The people of southern Scadrial are not prepared for chaotic war like those of the northern hemisphere are. They are satisfied with the mostly peaceful living situations they are currently in. And while they have access to the rare ettmetal, which serves as quite a dangerously explosive element, they are not a warlike people. Which means they will be ill-prepared to defend themselves. Ah, ettmetal. A wonderful analogy in and of itself of us. It exists as a result of Preservation and Ruin melded together, but still acts as a force of destruction. Ruin always triumphs, and it always will. That is why we seek to accomplish that, and not the Intent of the opposing Shard.

Our destruction of the southern hemisphere will be swift and simple, unless we take into account a number of possibilities - first, that they have access to the supposed Bands of Mourning created by their Sovereign, and more importantly, the nature of the Sovereign himself. There are beings from the past who I do worry about a tad when it comes to getting in our way. First are the kandra, though I'm experienced enough with them to know how to deal with them. Strong emotional Allomancy can influence them to lose their own will, and if that doesn't work, explosives and acid work well on them too." He chuckled at that.

"And what about old Ironeyes?" Bloodbath asked, even though he knew the answer. He was just eager for Detrare to speak it.

"I have no worry about him," Detrare said. "I knew him back when he was a simple man in the Steel Ministry's Canton of Inquisition. Marsh was his name. I worked alongside him and even spoke to him on occasion as an obligator in that Canton." He gave a devious smile. "I was one of the prelans that suggested he be made into an Inquisitor, even though I knew there was more to him than he let on. I did that in the hopes he would be influential in the fall of the Final Empire. And he was. So yes, I know old Ironeyes better than most Scadrians living today, and his legends make him out to be more fearsome than he is. In reality, he is simply an Inquisitor with extra spikes granted to him to make him extra powerful. He will surely try to counter us, but we have his own match made for him."

Bloodbath grinned and giggled. This was his main part to play in the Fulfillment.

"Yes, my son, you will reach your greatest accomplishment in killing the one they call Ironeyes, and you shall take his place as the one truly deserving of the title of Death. Removing him and the Faceless Immortals will make elimination of both halves of Scadrial much simpler. But back to the Sovereign. I don't know much about him, but I have reason to suspect that he may be a Fullborn." His expression turned serious.

"Historically, he has not made an appearance in many decades, so it would be quite a risk to take by attacking his own weak, undefended people. But that is a chance that we are going to take anyway. In the event that he does return and tries to defend his world, we will make our proper retreat after causing as much Ruin as we can." Detrare craned his neck upward and twisted his back. The spikes hurt and they added to the aching of his fatigue, but it was a good kind of pain. He sighed as he felt some of his bones pop. "Now, once that phase is completed on Scadrial, Nalthis, and Roshar, we move onto the next section of the plan. Mahah, draw a path from Roshar to Ashyn, Scadrial to Threnody, and Nalthis to Donne, the world closest to the sun in the Selish system."

Mahah promptly obeyed, stepping toward the table and making the notations.

"And draw a line through both Ashyn and Threnody."

Mahah did that too.

"Now onto the next set of worlds. Our first stage covered the complete annihilation of northern Scadrial and all worldhopping settlements we can find. The second stage regards southern Scadrial, Roshar, and Nalthis. Now for a much easier third stage - the Ruination of Threnody and Ashyn. In their case, our work has already been done for the most part. Ashyn was nearly destroyed in a great cataclysm many millennia ago, with its survivors trying to sustain themselves in cities suspended over a devastated planet surface. The world has already been totally Ruined - we simply have to complete the process by ending all life on it as well. That will be easy. Its people are poorly defended and are focused too much on survival to prepare for war. All it would take is enough firepower to collapse their cities to the surface, and Ruin has finally been Fulfilled to the greatest extent with that world. Our Rosharan forces will commit to that once we've done enough in aiding the Voidbringers."

Without order from Detrare, Mahah drew another line across Ashyn, completing the X mark. He should have asked permission, but Detrare appreciated when his subordinates took the right action without him even needing to tell them.

"At that time, our division on Nalthis will make their trek toward Threnody and the Scadrian force will go to Donne. That world is barren and unpopulated, leaving nothing to Ruin. On that note, I would like for you, Mahah, to circle all the worlds that we will not go to because there is nothing for us to Ruin. This includes Donne, Ky, and Ralen in the Selish system, Greater Roshar's ten gas giants, Aagal Nod and Aagal Uch in the Scadrian system, and Monody, Elegy, and Purity in the Threnodite system. Then circle every planet in the Drominad system except First of the Sun."

The tactician obeyed, circling the many planets. Then he asked, "And what of the others we have not marked?"

"Those are the worlds containing life that we cannot access." Detrare explained. "Scribble them out - First of the Sun, Obrodai, Braize, Taldain, Yolen. Leave others unmarked, as we have insufficient data regarding them."

After Mahah made those notations, he frowned in confusion. "And Sel?"

"Patience," Detrare said. "Now, back to the topic at hand. The third of us residing on the Cognitive Realm relative to Donne will pitch our tents there, so to speak, and prepare for the war of our lives. Our remaining forces from the Rosharan system will follow them there while the Nalthis division continues making its long trek to Threnody. There, they will have an easy time inflicting instant chaos. You see, half of Threnody has already been Ruined by the Evil. Even I don't know what it is, but I appreciate what is had done in devouring the Fallen World. Unfortunately, the same effect would come upon us if we were to come near, so we will simply avoid that section of the planet. Now, on the smaller continent of the Forests of Hell, the situation is still very dire already. Why is that, Requiem?"

Req stepped forward, shifting uncomfortably. He wasn't used to getting attention from so many people at once, and he wasn't much of a public speaker. He preferred to simply whistle as he worked away building weapons. "Um, because it's already being Ruined. By shades."

"And what are those?"

"Cognitive Shadows that awake and devour anything that breaks the Simple Rules - run at night, kindle fire, and shed blood."

"Excellent," Detrare said, rubbing his hands together. "They do our work for us. They react with savage fury when anyone causes unrest and chaos on that world. Destruction to punish destruction. Ruin compounded upon itself. We just need to expand that by sending a willing group of members to risk their lives on a suicide mission to cause as much chaos, burning, and bloodshed as possible. Not only will the acts of terror devastate the many forested areas of that world and upheave the already-unstable society of the Threnodites, but it will attract shades to further Ruin everyone on that world more than ever before in history. The shades will come for us as we cause it, but it is a sacrifice we are all Devoted enough to make. The work will be completed simply and quickly. Mahah, you know what to do."

The tactician drew the other line to finish the X mark over Threnody.

"Now, once that is done, any few who remain and haven't given their lives in Ruining Threnody will unite with the rest of our numbers in the Expanse of Densities where Donne is in the Physical Realm. Any further questions?" he asked, looking about and waiting for someone to say something just in case he hadn't made things clear enough. "I would appreciate any response before continuing." He also wanted to gauge their anticipation of what he would say next. Even if they already thought they knew. "So long as you do not question my authority and intentions, you may feel free to question aspects of the plan if you so wish. Do not be afraid."

For a moment, no one spoke. Even Eheron just stood thoughtfully. Then Mahah hesitantly stepped forward and asked, "And what of the Seventeenth Shard? They are a formidable force that covers the cosmere and have lasted long beyond our own organization. They enforce nonintervention, and what we do is quite intervening in cosmere-wide affairs. They have already been on our tail from the Inquis - pardon me, the Fulfillment's founding, so far as I know. Is that right?"

"They will try to intercept us every step of the way," Detrare said matter-of-factly. "And we will crush them every time they try to stop us. In terms of brute force and numbers, we far exceed them. The only advantage they have over us is greater knowledge of the cosmere. In battle, they will be no match. The same goes for the Ghostbloods, whether or not they try interfering in our affairs. We will decimate the numbers of those Ghostbloods and the Seventeenth Shard until all that remains is whatever is left of them cowering away on Yolen."

"And why aren't we attacking that world?" Maim asked.

"I won't say that we won't, even if I did before," Detrare responded. Then to everyone, he said, "Keep in mind that this plan we've been going over is not set in stone. It is subject to change, just as all things should be. It becomes most malleable during the fourth phase, after all that remains of our numbers have reunited on Donne, or at least somewhere in the Expanse of the Densities. So yes, Yolen is nearly impossible to reach, but we could possibly attempt to reach it at some point.

Now, our two primary targets after reaching the system will be Sel and Silverlight. Silverlight - the largest and greatest interplanetary establishment built in the Cognitive Realm, holding a collection of the greatest cosmere universities and knowledge. In destroying that interplanetary city and the universities within, we will be bringing much of the knowledge and history of the cosmere to a final end. It will be a more precise form of Ruin - not just a great Ruination of life, but also a Ruination of history itself. All that is known of the past will be destroyed, and with only the future to remain, the cosmere will be that much closer to reaching its finality. It is absolutely imperative that we reach Silverlight and destroy it, even if it will mean sacrificing the Ruin of another world by passing by it instead.

We need to have enough manpower and firepower to destroy that city and everything in it. It will be the last location in the Cognitive Realm we eliminate. The end of the fourth phase. And with that, we will have finished a very important step of the plan - completely Ruining the Cognitive Realm. Since the Spiritual Realm is inaccessible to all of us, that leaves only the Physical aspect remaining. This brings us to the fifth and what may very well be the final stage of the grand plan of Ruin - Sel."

Detrare leaned back, sighing. He was reaching the climax of the plan, which was funny, considering the plan itself was a design for the climax of the cosmere itself. The history and legacy of the cosmere was a book that spanned the ages, the Fulfillment the climax of the story. When the Fulfillment was done away, the universe would die away as the falling action of the story drew on, right up until the book reached a conclusion and ended. All stories needed to come to an end, even the grand tale of the entire cosmere. Detrare could sense that very end coming very soon. Maybe even within the next few years.

He hoped he would meet his own end before then. It didn't seem right to him that as a harbinger of destruction for the universe, he should be one of the last to live. After the Fulfillment was done, he deserved to die off soon. Every member of the formerly named Inquisition would die, until all that remained...was the Splinter of Ruin within the gemstone. And once it was released, it would continue the rest of its work on its own. In the meantime, Detrare had served it well enough. After all, it was the Splinter that had first influenced him to try building up an organization to Ruin the entire cosmere.

Before he had captured it, his Inquisition was just a small group that wanted to continue practicing Hemalurgy, sustained by Detrare's own knowledge and that of Saodin, the Elantrian who had once helped him. But once he had found and imprisoned the Splinter, shortly after its genesis, it had begun whispering to his soul, continually influencing him to do more Ruinous things. And he had allowed it to. He was never opposed to it influencing him, because he had always enjoyed the changes it made to his mind and personality. After all, it had finally influenced him to reach this point. The point of the Fulfillment.

But first, in order for the Fulfillment to truly begin, he needed to finish explaining the plan, he reminded himself. He continued with renewed vigor: "Sel! The largest, most technologically advanced, most well-defended, most difficult to access, and most populated Shardworld in the cosmere. It will be the hardest to bring Ruin to, and the last one to bring Ruin to, and that makes it the most important. It is just as vital that we reach it as Silverlight, as it also contains much important knowledge and history that must be destroyed. That is why we are going to those places last - because they are most essential in their destruction. Can anyone guess why?"

Mahah's eyes widened and he smiled, the cogs of a tactician's mind obviously turning within him. "Motivation to survive," he said, growing more excited with each sentence. "If we put the most important destinations last in our journey, then we will make an ever greater push to complete the steps along the way within even more brutality in order to make continual mental and physical preparation for the final and most important phases of the Fulfillment. In putting what is most vital last, we are giving everyone all the more reason to continue fighting, for it is most important that we accomplish every design the best we can until the end, but also keep as many of our members as we can alive before the end!"

"Journey before destination," Lenali muttered, ever the Radiant.

"Yes!" Detrare exclaimed. "Precisely!" He laughed a bit, waving for the others to do so. One could even find a Passion in talking about something as potentially boring as battle plans. "Now, as you all can probably tell, this plan was not considered in great detail every step of the way. But I can think of what we can do to maximize Ruin upon Sel. First will come the toppling of governments and world leaders, and the instigating of civil wars to get the Selish people to do the work for us."

"But how are we getting there?" Mahah asked suddenly.

Detrare swiveled to look directly at him. He erased all emotion from his face and calmly asked, "What was that you were interrupting me to say?"

"Uh - well, I was just going to ask about how we are going to reach Sel, considering that the difficulty in reaching it exceeds that of every other Shardworld?" As savvy a tactician the man was, Mahah was uneducated in the nature of some worlds, particularly Sel.

"You don't believe that we can gain access even though I have stated that location is our final destination?" Detrare asked softly. "Does Eheron's presence as an Elantrian from Sel not confirm that already? Do I have reason to question your trust in my command?"

"No, no!" Mahah said hurriedly. "My loyalty is absolute! Devotion is one of the most prized attributes in the cosmere, as we all know." He swallowed. "I...was only asking for clarification, sir." The already pale man was a little paler now.

"Good," Detrare said, shrugging and returning to a jovial attitude. It was always fun to have people fearing for their lives like that. It both helped to prove their Devotion and gave him a chance to have fun with them. "Well, if you must know, access to and from Sel is possible through pipelines in the Dor created by the Elantrians that carve tunnels in the Dor's chaotic energy. It gets one as close to the remnants of Devotion and Dominion as possible. Just imagine being an arm's reach away from the raw power of two Shards of Adonalsium, but still being perfectly safe. So close to true Devotion...is that right, Eheron? Aloo?"

Aloo just nodded. Eheron was still deep in thought. Detrare let him think, because there was something else he wanted to ask him that would probably make the Elantrian think deeply on future actions.

"Now, back to the main subject," Detrare said. "As it is the largest, most populated, most diverse, and most advanced Shardworld, that means Sel will be the most difficult to Ruin. Meaning that we will most likely expend the last of our numbers and resources trying to Fulfill Ruin's Intent. Sel very well could be our last stand."

He paused to let that sink in. "It's because of this that other aspects of the plan may be altered, but that must be included. Whatever remains of us will have to go to Sel. Some of the Selish people may already suspect attackers from another world when they lose all contact with everyone in the Ire, so we must be ready for them being ready. Once we get there, we go through the normal process of turning people against each other and toppling the leadership of nations to make them squabble in the chaos of anarchy, as I previously stated. But before I get to that, we need to address our biggest issues.

First of all, Shu-Dereth. I believe the Derethi are the only other group in the cosmere as truly united as we are in their Passion and Devotion. Their only difference is that they seek to unite all things and Ruin that which they think is undeserving of unity, whereas we only seek Ruin and division. This will put them at odds with us, and if they prove to be as Devoted in their unity as we are, we won't be able to turn them against one another. That would be as difficult as someone else trying to turn us against one another!"

A few chuckles filled the room at that thought. No one in the Inquisition would ever try turning against one another. If they did, then they weren't really a member. Part of a person's initiation into the Inquisition involved proving their Devotion in a way that meant doing something very difficult - and often very bloody - that they wouldn't have normally done before. Their loyalty was proven and refined. Insurrection within the Inquisition was impossible.

Detrare realized he was still thinking of their movement using the term Inquisition. He mentally chided himself, reminding himself that it was now called the Fulfillment. That would definitely take some getting used to. He continued. "But our other main problem - possibly our greatest obstacle we may encounter - is Elantris itself. The Elantrians are viewed as gods, and not without reason. They are immortal, practically invincible, full of the power of the AonDor and various supernal abilities, and there are always more of them coming into existence because of the Shaod. Not to mention that their city itself is a well of power and light that cannot be felled by conventional means. To try fighting against the Elantrians would be futile. So what could we do to counter them? Any ideas?"

He gestured to everyone else in the room, waiting for someone to make a suggestion. Hopefully, they would come to the same conclusion he had. "Suicide attacks?" Aloo said, brow scrunched up in deep thought. "We could blow them up using explosives attached to ourselves. We would just charge at them wearing lots of dynamite, packages of gunpowder, or ettmetal and water, and blow them away."

Detrare nodded and smiled. That was a good suggestion.

"Using our own Radiants and Elantrians against them?" Mahah asked. "Or better yet, we could send all of our most Invested warriors to fight them, such as Saun -"

Bloodbath growled.

"- I mean, Bloodbath, Maim, Lenali, and Eheron. And we have a couple stolen Shardblade spren. Perhaps we could bond them to our Inquisitors so they can slay the Elantrians with them? Yes, they are powerful beings, but Shardblades cut through body, mind, and soul for all living beings, no matter how Invested. With Bloodbath and Maim charging through them with their Shardblades, slaying the Elantrians shouldn't be a problem at all!"

"Another excellent idea," Detrare said. More Invested beings would be good to have around. If only Saodin had stayed by his side so long ago. The more Elantrians they had on their side to fight the other Elantrians, the better. "But the Shaod will still take more, and the city will still stand. What can we do about that?"

There was a long pause. Then, the elderly woman who had gone with Detrare to visit Teshani, a former noblewoman from the Elendel Basin named Tomain, spoke up. "What if there was another Reod?"

"Yes!" Detrare exclaimed. "I was waiting for someone to say that! Centuries ago, the city of Elantris fell dark and lost its power, and the blessing of the Shaod was turned into a curse that weakened people into pathetic wretches. No one knew why it happened. That event was known as the Reod. It was like that for ten years before one of the Elantrians, the famous Arelene king Raoden, discovered the cause. The Aons that the Elantrians use to manipulate the Dor are based on the shape of the land of the continent it is on. Even the city itself was shaped based on the continent they call Opelon. Extraordinary, really.

Around the time of the Reod, there was a large earthquake on that continent that created a jagged chasm deep in the south parts of Opelon. It was a part of that world's geography, and because all the Aons - even that of Elantris itself - didn't have that chasm as part of their Aons, the Dor was closed off and they were reduced to the cursed whelps they really were on the inside. But once they added that line to represent the chasm on their Aons, the city and all access to the AonDor was restored. I tell you this because I want to introduce the possibility of causing another Reod.

What if we were to drastically change the landscape of the world in a way that the Elantrians didn't know of, which would effectively close off the Dor once again and keep them from knowing how to repair it. What if we took all of our gunpowder, dynamite, and ettmetal, as Aloo suggested, and instead detonated all of them within the chasm? Or at another location that would fundamentally change the surface of Opelon? We would eliminate our greatest obstacle just like that!" He snapped. "Even the process of doing that would be a major act of Ruin in and of itself!"

He paused, then glanced over at Eheron for a moment, still addressing everyone in the room. He spoke more solemnly. "Of course, there are ramifications to that. In doing that, we would also effectively destroy all Dor pipelines created in the Cognitive Realm and cut off many connections between Shardworlds. But we would also be obliterating any means of leaving that world, meaning we would permanently remain on Sel. We would have no choice of leaving. But another thing that would make me hesitate to do this...is you, my boy."

He pointed to Eheron. "Inflicting another Reod upon Opelon would mean transforming all Elantrians into powerless, weak creatures - even you. And I don't know if putting you through such agony would be worth it to eliminate our largest obstacle. I care too much about you to willingly put you through endless pain such as that. Which is why...I leave the choice to you." All eyes - and spikes - in the room turned to the Elantrian Hemalurgist. "You decide now, Eheron," Detrare said softly. "Will we create a new Reod when we reach Sel or not? You may change your mind at any point, but in the end, it's up to you."

**Tesh:** It's been hours. I haven't heard anything from another soul. Ani is gone from my sight. In a vain attempt at freedom, I try the door. Locked. I could try to get out, but what it would it do? Detrare has troops. They could easily take me.

I lean against the door and slide to the ground, pulling my knees to my chest and laying my head on them. The room is cold. I hadn't noticed that before. Again, I begin to cry. For what has been lost. For the things yet to be done. I quietly say a prayer to Harmony. He can hear me, thanks to that spike. But of course, he doesn't answer.

For the first time in years, I think of my parents. Then I shove the thought away.

Tears soak into the rough cloth of my trousers. They are for Mahshi, Sazin, Varaseel, Mask, Celia, Samar, Carola, Rathil, Mathis...Mathis. Gone. Dead.

Because of me. Soon the world will be gone, the cosmere destroyed. Because of me. Just like my sister, and one of the closest friends I ever had.

**Mist:** Remembering was painful, but it was a sweet kind of pain. In those years he had lived on First of the Sun, dreaming of grand adventures off-world with his father, in the warm, comforting embrace of his family, he had been truly happy.

Dawn smiled, but it was a sad smile. A broken smile, yet a smile all the same. "More than anything," he whispered. He rubbed his eyes, so as to keep from crying. "And you?"

There was something in her eyes, fleeting as starlight amidst clouds. She seemed vulnerable. Open. Her openness and honesty was ice water breaking over his head, its crisp chill driving away the fog. It was so unexpected, yet refreshing.

**Ene:** "I don't know." And I didn't. I ducked my head, stroking Dog's carapace absently. Remembering was not something I preferred to do.

**Quick:** Eheron narrowed his eyes. This was an important decision that rested on his shoulders; it would affect not only his own fate, but that of every other Elantrian in the ranks of the Fulfillment, and even the fate of the Fulfillment itself. He considered the idea, not which choice to make; he had to do what was best for the Fulfillment. No, what he considered was a way to avoid the drawbacks of the plan.

"The idea is a good one," Eheron said. "However...there is no need for the change to be permanent. If we initiate a new Reod, our Invested warriors will easily take the city. The Elantrians within the city will fall and we can then Ruin them all using the pool within the city. After all of the old Elantrians are destroyed, Elantris can then be restored. Once that happens, the only Elantrians remaining will be the ones within our ranks. Any others who are taken by the Shaod will join our ranks or die."

**Fire:** Detrare paused and cocked his head, thinking on that for a moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed out loud. "Ha! Genius, my boy! Son, you truly are profound sometimes! Cause a Reod and then repair it after eliminating all the enemy Elantrians, while you're still full of power and glory! And then, once they're gone, we can use their beloved city as a temporary base of operations, continually replenishing our resources, being well-fortified, and possibly even adding people to our numbers. Once the city is restored, the Elantrians may be enhanced, but they won't know how to use the Aons, leaving them powerless to us! Their only alternative to instant death would be to die later attacking their fellow Selish people, but whatever happens, everyone dies in the end!"

He stood up and started pacing. "Even after Ruining all those other worlds, we could keep on fighting on Sel for years yet! There are already enough conflicts going on all over that world that would make it easier for all of us! And with the city itself in our possession, we can easily destroy all of its libraries, universities, knowledge, everything containing the history of that world and the cosmere within Elantris! So that even after we all die away, the Selish people will have lost an irreparable amount of knowledge, so much of their history done away! And since they will no longer have a past to learn from..."

He paused for a bit, thinking about the concept of restoring Elantris after Ruining the city. The thought of fixing something they had already Ruined didn't sit well with him, but it did remove some drawbacks. And it made sense that Eheron would want to live as long as he could to Ruin as much as he could. At that moment, Detrare decided in his head that he wouldn't Ruin Elantris a second time until after Eheron was dead, whenever that would be. He didn't like to think about that, but he knew it was inevitable.

They were all going to die. The more that inevitability was delayed, though, the better. He didn't want himself, Eheron, Bloodbath, Kalazeras, or any of the Exemplars to die until after they had done a great deal of Fulfilling Ruin's Intent. He realized the others were staring at him. He'd cut off mid-sentence. "Well, we'll get to that when the time comes. But at least you all know the plan. Thank you, Eheron, for making that decision for me. I wouldn't have left such a choice to anyone else. Now, let us review what happens within the next day.

Tonight, we will party away, reveling in all our Passions and celebrating the joy of life. And of course, storing up Feruchemical attributes and stocking up on Stormlight. This will continue late into the night until we all fall into stupor or sleep, and we will rest away for most of what is daytime in the Physical Realm. Then, when night falls tomorrow, we will gather our weapons and resources, then make our strike on the Elendel Basin - starting with the city in the center and everything else in our wake. Swiftly, without quarter or hesitation. Total annihilation from an unsuspecting army of Ruin's servants. The Fulfillment begins in full earnest tomorrow night."

Detrare sighed, glad to have gotten it all out of the way. "And with that, let us go and revel away!" he shouted. Everyone else gave a cheer, and he led them out. He was really looking forward to feasting. So long as he was consistently storing nutrition, he could continue eating without worry! Except...he wasn't done yet. There were still things to prepare for. Because as much as he hated to admit it, there were still some things he was afraid of, particularly ones that risked major intervention with the Fulfillment.

As they all filed out of the room, Detrare lingered in the doorway, telling the others he would join them in a few minutes after finishing up some last-minute business. But Bloodbath stood by him, patiently waiting. At least, he made it seem like he was patient. But Detrare could sense through the gemstone - and perhaps by fatherly instinct - that the young man was really struggling to control his overbearing urge to kill and destroy. As if the gem was the only thing leashing him to a semblance of humanity.

"Father?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes, my son?" Detrare said.

"What is with all the planning? Why are we scheming? We want to cause Ruin and indulge in our Passions, so why not just leave now, or five _days_ ago? Why don't we just attack everything around us and not plan where to go next? I don't like planning. It's not...Ruinous enough."

Detrare smiled, resting both hands on his son's shoulders. Unlike the scholarly members of the Inquisition such as Eheron, the Inquisitor had never really received an education. He had been trained specifically to be a warrior and a killer all his life. Actually being intelligent was irrelevant with him. "Bloodbath, my child, we plan now in order to maximize our potential chaos. Even the very Shard of Ruin himself planned this world's end in the days before the Catacendre. He manipulated sacred writings, seized control of koloss and kandra at just the right moments, influenced nature itself to act destructively, used even those who tried to fight against him to further his plans, and even put aside destroying some things so he could gain the power to destroy them later! He expertly schemed for millenia just to free himself from Preservation's prison!"

"He failed," Bloodbath bluntly stated.

"Yes, well..." Detrare paused. Not because he didn't have an answer. It was just that for an uneducated killing machine, the Inquisitor had a point. He was smart enough to point that out at least. "Good point. But that was only because himself was outplanned by Preservation. They plotted against one another for thousands of years. They only ended up merged together instead of Ruin successfully destroying everything because one was the better planner. The best way to accomplish your goals is to plan it out, even if it means putting aside your desired result for a while. Even the living manifestation of entropy, change, and destruction knew that. So a force of destruction such as you should be able to understand that as well."

Bloodbath shrugged. "I suppose. I'm going to go kill some animals and eat them."

"Have fun," Detrare said cheerfully as the Inquisitor stalked away.

He stepped inside the office again, striding to his desk to pick up the gem. He spoke into the souls of a number of men in the room where Bloodbath was going. He could have called to anyone in the fortress, but it was best to keep those ones away from Bloodbath when the Inquisitor was in a frenzy. He was killing two birds with one coin in this case. He needed to give these men an extra mission, one that hadn't occurred to him until recently. For there were only a few things Detrare was afraid of that could interfere. First of all was the reason he was currently having the Inquisition - no, the Fulfillment - avoid Taldain, Obrodai, and First of the Sun. He suspected they were all influenced by the same Shard, one that would be at odds with the Inquisition because of their interference - Autonomy.

It was a Shard of God he only knew the lore of, but one thing he knew was that it didn't tolerate intervention such as what the Fulfillment was going to instigate, just like the Seventeenth Shard organization...but how could one fight against a Shard of Adonalsium itself? Especially one he knew so little of? For all he knew, Autonomy had even left a mark of its presence on Scadrial itself! He wasn't as afraid of Passion, the one often called Odium, as their goals could be considered aligned. Cultivation didn't seem to be doing anything on Roshar. Endowment did nothing to interfere with its world more than creating the Returned, which could be killed just as easily as any normal person. Devotion and Dominion were dead, and the Dor they comprised would be useless once another Reod was caused.

Harmony was one who Detrare might have been afraid of, were it not for the gemstone. Being half Ruin, Harmony should have been able to speak to or take control anyone in the Inquisition, especially Inquisitors, Eheron, or Detrare himself. But because the Splinter of Ruin had a close Connection to every Hemalurgic construct within the Inquisition, Detrare had the control instead of Harmony through the Splinter. Besides, Harmony was unlikely do anything anyway. First of all, he was half Ruin, so he was likely to allow it. Second of all, what could he do to fight anyway?

There were just a couple of non-Shardic beings Detrare worried about. First was the Fullborn proclaimed to be the Lord Ruler, known as the Sovereign, though that being hadn't appeared in a very long time. The other…

A group of men walked into the room, looking confused. "You summoned us, lord?" the one in front asked.

The other threat still had to be dealt with, as a contingency. "Before you join us all in the Fulfillment, I have a very important task for you. I need you kidnap a pair of Terris children and keep them alive and hidden away in a location in the Physical Realm only I would know."

"Um, yes, sir," the man said. "Of course. Out of curiosity, why?"

"Leverage," Detrare said with a smile. "Ransom. I need to make sure someone dangerous doesn't interfere with us."

"Where are they?"

"In Elendel, I believe, within the Village. If not, then in a close outlying village."

"Well, we can find them if I can get names, sir," the man said.

Excellent. This man was a tracker. Detrare thanked Adonalsium for his good fortune in summoning him. For it was imperative that these children be secured for the Fulfillment, to hold against the one who was quite certainly the most powerful human in the cosmere currently. A man who the Fulfillment had dealt with before.

"The children's names are Corrin and Sazed." Detrare needed a reason for Cole to not be fighting on the side of the Knights of the Cosmere. Without him, they would be much easier to eradicate.

"When do you want us to leave?" the man in front asked.

"Now."

_I just want to see my home again_, Rathil thought bitterly as he lay on his back in the misty plains, gazing up at endless darkness of the Cognitive Realm's sky. All these weeks in the aptly titled Expanse of the Vapors, and he still hadn't seen what his world of Scadrial looked like physically. He wanted - no, _needed _\- to see it again. He needed to know that he'd been wrong all this time. He needed to know that Scadrial still was there. Sure, he'd seen the physical side of the southern continent, but he hadn't even known that was there before two weeks ago! It might as well have been a different world entirely. He wanted to see this Elendel he'd heard of, the city that had replaced Luthadel.

But first, the Inquisition. Their fortress was just at a visible distance from where he was, yet looming over all of them all the same. Rathil had been waiting with Sam, Phoenix, and Cole, then another bunch of people who were planning on getting there too - he recognized Mahshi and, unfortunately, Tarenwel - for about two days now, but it had felt like months. They were still waiting for an opportune moment to attack the fortress.

Before then, he'd been at Phoenix's base for a few days, alone with Sam. That hadn't been so bad. It had allowed time for them to...bond? Could he even say that? They hadn't communicated much, but Rathil had found himself growing increasingly fond of her, for some reason. Maybe it was because of how proficient with knives they were. Or maybe it was because, like him, she was broken on the inside and had suffered a lot of heartache and pain in her life, and she wasn't too good at hiding it. Rathil understood that. He could relate to that. Whatever the case, he pitied her. Yet, at the same time, he respected her. She wasn't as bad as the others.

Phoenix...well, despite being extremely _annoying _with all his scholarly talk, he also knew a lot about Hemalurgy, and that didn't sit well with Rathil. It made the man untrustworthy, and Rathil hated what he didn't trust. But as people went, Phoenix wasn't the worst. It was Cole Rathil hated the most. Mostly because he was the least trustworthy. Rathil had a hard time feeling comfortable around someone who could literally rip him to pieces in less than a second. He could still remember the sight of that Inquisitor's blood being ripped right out of its body. Another reason he hated Cole so much. The cheeky Terrisman had killed that Inquisitor, something that should have been Rathil's job. It _deserved _to be Rathil's job. It almost made Rathil _hope _that there would be another Inquisitor or two at the fortress, just so he could _finally _get the chance to slaughter one.

Maybe he should ask Wilberforce to check the fortress again. He'd been introduced to that weird fellow a couple days ago, and he honestly wasn't sure what to make of him. The man, or the shadow of a man, was quite strange, but in a rather cool way. If anything, Rathil was just a bit in awe of him. But at the same time, he wasn't sure if he could trust him. This Wilberforce was one-of-a-kind, and who knew what he was capable of. Apparently, he'd killed a few koloss just by tearing apart their _minds_. It was astounding. Definitely the kind of person Rathil wanted on his side. Assuming he even was.

For now, Rathil would just have to trust that no one else among this ragtag bunch of Vindicators would betray anyone because of their common enemy. The tension had only gone up further when the Surgefinders arrived. For some unknown, stupid reason, the two factions were at odds with each other, despite having once been a united group. The Knights of the Cosmere. What had happened? Could they keep away from each other's throats to deal with this threat? _We just need to stick together long enough to take down this Inquisition while we still have the chance. Whatever comes next depends on whether or not we live through it. _

Rathil wasn't planning on dying. As much as he hated, as much as he absolutely _loathed _the Inquisition, he didn't want to sacrifice himself fighting them in a blaze of glory. He still needed to see Scadrial as it had been described to him. That was the one thing he had to live for, other than taking down these Hemalurgic *******s. Once the Inquisition was dead and he'd seen Scadrial again...then his life would be complete, he figured. _Here's hoping we live through this._

Well, most of them. Was it too much to hope for Cole and Tarenwel dying in this mess? Rathil wouldn't be opposed to that. But he couldn't let Sam die. Not her. Storm it all, he cared about her. He was starting to care about her like he had everyone who came before. He was starting to care about her just like he'd promised himself to never care about someone again. He wasn't going to let himself get attached to someone, because every time he did, every single someone died. He had watched everyone he'd ever loved or cared about die right in front of him all his life. And to ****ation with all of it, but he was caring about someone all over again. Not that he could ever let Sam know that. But maybe...just maybe...he could keep someone from dying for once. And then there was Tesh.

He had known her for barely a few hours, but she was in danger in that fortress. For all he knew, she was already dead. But she was an honorable girl, and he didn't fully know what long-lasting conflict was going on between her and Sam, but he hoped they'd get their crem together and get it resolved. Besides, Tesh had been hurt by the Inquisition before. Badly. She was just as determined as him to take it down. That was all he needed to say they were on the same side. He hoped she was still alive. They needed her. And while he knew the Vindicators were only here to destroy the Inquisition and the Surgefinders were here to save Tesh, he wanted to make sure both were accomplished. The factions had to work together for the first time in who storming knew how long. They needed to be united.

Rathil sat up, grumbling. When would they all get their crem together? Not just Sam and Tesh, but the groups they led as well? Whatever. Whether or not they were always united didn't matter to Rathil. Just as long as this Inquisition existed. And he couldn't wait to kill as many of those Inquisitors as he could. They needed to get going. Standing up, he walked over to Wilberforce. He didn't care if he broke the awkward silence between everyone. "Hey, sorry to ask again, but when's the next time you're gonna check their fort out? I'm getting a bit sick of waiting around for this."

Detrare laughed with his companions as he ate with them in the great hall, gorging himself on every item of food within reach at his table. He made sure to be constantly storing the energy he got from the food in his new metalmind, filling it with the nutrition of everything he was eating. Mostly meat. Any kind of it. The people of Roshar erroneously labeled all birds as chickens, so why not look at it that way for now? The meat was all chicken to him! Whatever the case, it tasted good! He just needed to eat more.

Detrare wasn't thinking very clearly now, which was saying something, given the massive stores of mental speed he had within him. That was because he was drunk. While he was filling the spike that constituted as his bendalloymind, he was leaving his goldminds - both the ones spiked into him and the ones in his stomach - unburnt. He didn't want to heal away the effect of the wine on his body quite yet. It felt good, relaxing, invigorating. It was soothing and stimulating all at once. He loved it.

Passion. This was what life was about. Living to the fullest of one's Passions, filling one's days with what they loved doing, actually doing something with their life in pursuit of their deepest, greatest desires. For if all things must die, then they should at least be allowed to truly live first. It wasn't enough to only survive. It was best to die in glory, having lived life to the extent of Passion. To know what it was to feel joy, to feel satisfaction, to feel intensity, to love, to hate, to act before it all ended in Ruin.

"Life before death," Detrare muttered, chuckling to himself. Those Radiants were right about one thing. Everything was going to die; it might as well get a chance to live first, if only for a bit. Before the Fulfillment brought that death to the cosmere. A unified fulfilling of the Intents of Ruin and Passion. The ending to the universe's story that it deserved. Thinking of the end of all things reminded Detrare of the Splinter of Ruin. He pulled the gemstone out of the pocket in his robes, letting its red-violet light encompass everyone in the room with him.

Detrare looked into the center of the stone, blinding as it was, and remembered when he had first captured the Splinter within it. It had given him a vision of the end of the cosmere, of the entire universe. A finality the Fulfillment was not capable of, but would fulfill to the greatest of their abilities. What else should he do with the Splinter now? Detrare puzzled on it for a second, then decided to tap his zincmind and his goldmind. His thinking became clearer and sped up, the haze of drunkenness fading away like a man's final breath.

The thought occurred to him that he could use it to speak into the soul of Teshani, who was still locked far away in the bottom of the dungeon. The girl had resisted him for too long, not giving up useful information that would have made the first phase of the Fulfillment easier. But even then, she still represented opposition. As leader of those Knights of the Cosmere, she was the representation of opposition to the intentions of the Fulfillment. It was so easy to hate her for all she'd done and all she'd kept from telling him. After a moment's consideration, Detrare figured it was fair to break her spirit. Let her be deprived of hope and will to live as punishment for impeding God's will.

He held the gemstone to his mouth, closed his eyes, sought out the Radiant girl's soul specifically, and spoke directly into it, hoping she was awake to hear the message that would pierce into her heart. Even if she was slumbering, it would probably come across to her. "You have failed, Teshani Kholin," he said. A few men sitting by him stopped their eating for a moment to listen to what he had to say. "All you do is fail. You can't protect your allies, your worlds, not even your family. You are over. There is not point in trying to stay alive. Do you hope someone would come to save you? Who would do such as thing, taking the time to think of helping a worthless little child such as you? Honor? The god whose precepts you follow? Dead. He has been for millennia.

Harmony? Since he resides so close to here, do you wish for him to rescue you from your bonds? Do you really think Harmony wouldn't have done so already? Do you think he can? Whether or not he is able to, he won't. The most powerful being in the cosmere does nothing to save anyone. He hasn't acted against us before; do you really think he would now? Do you still continue to look up to him? No one is here for you. Harmony never did anything to stop us, don't you remember? If he actually wanted to stop us, if he was really on your side, he would have taken every opportunity to do it before. He could have taken control over any of our Inquisitors or koloss, yet he didn't. He could have stopped Mask from burning down that city. He could have stopped my comrades from hunting all of you down. He could have saved little Sazin."

Detrare paused to let that sink in, smiling. "He could have saved your family from being slaughtered by that Inquisitor long ago. But he didn't. You are alone. You've always been alone. Which is why you must die. You don't have a purpose anymore. You need to be put out of your misery, like all the rest of the cosmere." He took another gulp of wine amidst the laughter of the men around him and said one more thing to Tesh's soul: "The only thing left for you is Ruin. Accept that, and perhaps you may at least die with dignity as you rot away down there. Alone."

Detrare laughed to himself, setting the gemstone in the middle of a platter in front of him so everyone could see the piece of Ruin in the room with them. That was a little too cruel, he thought to himself. Saying all that hadn't been very necessary. But that girl deserved it. She had defied God's will, and so needed to be punished. He wouldn't even kill her. He was just going to let nature take its course now. Best to let her starve and bleed to death. Slowly and inevitably. Just like the cosmere. He left the gemstone ignored on the platter as he continued to eat, drink, and be merry. And so the raucous night wore on.


	13. Plans and Flashbacks

**Ene:** I shifted again, looking down at Dog. He had always been there when I needed him before. When I had found him as a young axehound pup, I had begged Jathlet to let me keep him. He had reluctantly agreed; I'd known that there might be some danger in keeping him, but I figured that there was no reason for him to be killed or hurt. He was well-behaved, after all, and not a threat. He could fight, though. I'd learned this when he had attacked...I shut my eyes. There was no need to think about that now.

Even when I had left Jathlet, Dog had followed me. I smiled down at him, scratching near his antennae, which buzzed happily.

Looking up, I trotted over to Wilberforce - the Cognitive Shadow in the Vindicators, the man who had promised to get us in the fortress. I nodded a polite, neutral hello to the rest of them, then turned to him and asked, "Are we going to go in, then?" While I waited for him to say something, I assessed the group. Wilberforce seemed mostly nonthreatening; from what I'd heard, you only really had to fear him when he...merged with his large bird thing. It stood next to him, looking a little scary.

Sam looked scarier. She was tensed by Rathil, looking angry. Wasn't she a Dustbringer? They could do some damage when they were upset. I wondered why she and her group were even here. They weren't friends of Teshani's, were they? I turned to Rathil next. He was an atium savant, the Surgefinders had told me, and it showed. Though he was speaking with Wilberforce, part of him seemed primed to fight at any moment.

Most of his fury was pointed at Cole. Cole, the Fullborn. If Rathil was ready to fight, then Cole was eager to. He practically lounged, looking utterly uncaring about anything. And with good reason. Mistborn, a full Feruchemist, a powerful Awakener, and who knew what else? He could probably kill us all before we even knew he'd moved. He was a man to be wary around. Phoenix must be the exact opposite. Unlike any of them, while he was incredibly powerful, he was also a scholar. He studied things. An Elsecaller and Elantrian, he could be feared if he wished, but instead looked content to observe. I wondered what his motivation was. What any of theirs was.

**Sami:** "Are we going to go in, then?"

Sam let her eyes rest on the group before her. They were like lost puppies, growling, baring their teeth at any sign of life wandering past, yet lost and uncertain. Waiting for someone to step up and take charge, tell them what to do.

Honestly, like this, they didn't stand a chance. Phoenix had extended his mercy toward them, but he couldn't speak for the rest of them. Sam would fight, but she wasn't a babysitter, nor a - for lack of a better word - bodyguard, and she suspected Cole and Rathil were even less so. They were more or less on their own.

**Tesh:** "We should form a plan," Mahshi says. "It's beyond time."

_You have failed, Teshani Kholin. _The words cut through the quiet. No. Through my soul.

"Harmony?" I whisper, my voice cracking.

_All you do is fail. You can't protect your allies, your worlds, not even your family. You are over. There is not point in trying to stay alive. Do you hope someone would come to save you? Who would do such as thing, taking the time to think of helping a worthless little child such as you? Honor? The god whose precepts you follow? Dead. He has been for millennia. _

No. Not Honor. But it's true. "I know." Again I whisper, but my voice is stronger. "I know he's dead." My voice grows. "I've known there was no God where I was since I was a child. I've always felt it! Always!"

But the voice continues. _Harmony? Since he resides so close to here, do you wish for him to rescue you from your bonds? Do you really think Harmony wouldn't have done so already? Do you think he can? Whether or not he is able to, he won't. The most powerful being in the cosmere does nothing to save anyone. He hasn't acted against us before; do you really think he would now? Do you still continue to look up to him? No one is here for you. Harmony never did anything to stop us, don't you remember? If he actually wanted to stop us, if he was really on your side, he would have taken every opportunity to do it before. He could have taken control over any of our Inquisitors or koloss, yet he didn't. He could have stopped Mask from burning down that city. He could have stopped my comrades from hunting all of you down. _

"Harmony is not God. He is a fragment, a sliver, of what once was. He is a larger piece than most, but still a piece!"

_He could have saved little Sazin. _

"How dare you mention her name!" I scream, jump to my feet, and charge the door. I throw my hand to the side, trying to summon Ani.

She screams. My hand stays empty.

I bang against the door and feel a tear fall down my face. "What have you done?"

_He could have saved your family from being slaughtered by that Inquisitor long ago. But he didn't. You are alone. You've always been alone. Which is why you must die. You don't have a purpose anymore. You need to be put out of your misery, like all the rest of the cosmere. _

"I am not alone! I never have been, and never will be! Unlike you. You're the one who should die. And you actually deserve it."

_The only thing left for you is Ruin. Accept that, and perhaps you may at least die with dignity as you rot away down there. Alone. _

"I will never accept Ruin. Never." Finally, out loud, I say the truth. "And my name is not Teshani Kholin. It's Teshani. Teshani Brinian. That is the truth."

"Thank you," Ani whispers.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm...all right. Just don't try summoning me again. Please. Our Surgebinding won't work. But something is coming. I don't know if it's good or bad, but it will get you out of here soon."

"Thank you." And I settle down to wait.

**Ink:** I sat, pondering the fight ahead. What was I fighting for? To save the world? No. I had asked about the Knights Radiant and had heard their oaths. I had taken them to heart, as they made sense in all this chaos.

Life before death. Life wasn't about living forever, it was making the most of it while you had it. All things died, but it was important to focus on living while you could.

Strength before weakness. Everyone had a weak spot, but you had to be strong. Not that you should ignore it, but that you should make sure that you know when and where it should be known. The strength of many covers the flaws of the few.

Journey before destination. Everything had a place it was going, intentionally or not. The journey was the most important part, showing how much you would give to reach the destination and what motivates you.

I wasn't fighting to stop ruin. That was impossible. All things died. All things crumbled. Mountains became dust. Continents were washed away. Kings passed away, and eventually planets and stars died. The point wasn't stopping the inevitable, it was keeping it balanced, so that the future generations could enjoy the things we fought to preserve.

The Inquisition was doing the opposite, trying to destroy faster. All things needed balance, true, but complete annihilation was much worse than a slow wearing down. From the ashes of the broken, ruined things can come new, sometimes greater things. The remnants of dead stars formed into planets that make new life. With the mountains that turned to dust, the dust was used to make a new mountain. And the legacy of those who came before inspires new, greater heroes to come in a time when they are most needed.

**Quick:** "Indeed," Tarenwel said to Mahshi.

**Tesh:** "I suppose...a diversion is the most obvious method. And that might work. Um...any ideas?" Mahshi fidgets uncomfortably.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looked over at the group camped on the far side of the valley and rolled his eyes. _What are they doing here anyway? They'll only get themselves killed. _None of them had the resources to deal with this group they were about to face. The one called Mahshi was probably the most competent of them all, but even he didn't seem to have much of a plan.

Phoenix, on the other hand, had been busy each night mapping out the New Inquisition base. He couldn't get close enough to view the base from the Cognitive Realm, but by making very strategic trips to different areas in the Physical Realm, he had been able - over the past week or so - to map out a very rough idea of how the terrain would look in the Cognitive Realm. He'd had to do many various adjustments, as the area in the Physical Realm wasn't heavily populated, but he was slowly gaining confidence in his map.

Now that he had a working map of the terrain, the logical makeup of the base was starting to become clear when joined with the part of the base he could actually see from the outside in various parts of the Cognitive Realm. He could always adapt for small differences here and there once they were in the actual base. But he had a good idea of where Detrare would be.

Phoenix called over Cole, Sam, Rathil and Wilberforce. "All right, I have a map prepared. It may not be a hundred percent accurate, but I do have a very strong feeling that Detrare will be hiding in this part of the building." Phoenix gestured to his map. "We should focus our attack there. Once Wilberforce finds an opening in the defenses, he can disable their security and then we can Elsecall to a well-defensible place in the complex relatively close. Wilberforce, when do you plan to do another scouting trip?"

**Quick:** "Diversions are such an obvious option because they work exceptionally well. However, I doubt our opponents will be so easily fooled as to believe that a single, reckless attack contains our entire force...perhaps the weakest members of our group should attack openly, along with Cole. We'll deliberately trip the alarms and attack the fortress openly, with Cole pretending to be a simple Twinborn.

Then Wilberforce will disable the defenses and let the remainder into the fortress. Once inside, they will begin attacking the enemy forces. Since they will appear to be a greater threat, most of the enemy troops will go fight them. Meanwhile the first team will continue to push deeper into the enemy base with the goals of killing the Inquisition's leadership and rescuing Tesh."

**Tesh:** "Yes..." Mahshi muses. "But we need to get back with Phoenix's group before we decide anything for certain."

**Ene:** The Vindicators pulled together, planning, and completely ignored me. I rolled my eyes slightly, then headed back to Dawn and the rest.

"Hello." I dipped my head to them. "What do we plan to do once we get in? You're trying to take down the Inquisition, right? While saving people?"

**Sami:** Sam gave a short wolfish grin that didn't look - or intend to look - anything close to genuine. "Yeah, that sounds simple enough...except that we all know it's not going to be that simple. Aren't Tesh's acolytes only here to get her, and how do we know that they're even going to stick to this...plan...and not do anything stupid?"

In truth, she felt keyed up. Something about this place, or even the prospect of it, was stirring a pit of uneasiness in her stomach, as opposed to the normal collected anticipation she should have felt at the prospect a fight. What was wrong with her?

**Phoenix:** "Of course it won't be that simple, but we have to start somewhere, and adapt to changes. As for _them_, if we don't include them then they'll go off on their own and do something even _more_ stupid, and we will have _zero_ control over their actions. It would have been best had they not even come; I'm not sure why Wilberforce saw the need to lead them here in the first place."

**Cole:** Cole came expecting to blow away all caution and level the fortress on his own, but now that he was preparing to attack, something felt _wrong_. And although feelings like this weren't always accurate, over his long life Cole had learned to trust them every time.

He had just been about to comment on the uselessness of all the new Surgebinders, but this feeling made him bite his tongue. He instead looked around, trying to find whatever could have triggered the feeling, but nothing jumped out as unsettling. His hand went down to his sheathed blade, but he resisted the urge to draw it. It offered no comfort. Something felt very wrong…

**Sami:** Sam shook her head. "Don't forget you're the one the offered _our_ help to them, but whatever. At least they'll be able to do...something." Not even the prospect of killing was easing the agitation creeping up and spreading throughout her body. She turned her head a little, making eye contact with Cole. He felt something as well, and the knowledge did absolutely nothing to help her.

**Fire:** Rathil grumbled to himself. _Sure, go ahead and ignore me_, he thought. _But when others start talking, it's important._ This was the opposite of what he was used to. With every crew he'd ever been in, he was the natural leader. He always ended up being in charge, because others looked up to him that way. Mainly because he was usually the one to start the crews. This was different. This time, he was the newcomer, the raw recruit swept aside until he could prove himself.

It bothered him, though he knew it shouldn't. His standing in the Vindicators didn't matter, so long as they all got done what needed getting done. But it still itched at him, not being looked up to and all. Then again, he hadn't been doing much to assert any dominance in the past couple weeks. He'd remained more in the background. These Vindicators, they weren't close. They kept their secrets to themselves. Except for when they couldn't.

As much as he would have liked to hide it, he was sure the others knew about his increasing madness, the way it crept up and seized him whenever he slept, sending him into a screaming frenzy whenever he woke up. He'd already had that inner darkness, that empty nothingness that ripped away all feeling and drive, consume him all his life. Now he was falling into insanity as well. And the slaughter he was going to commit tonight probably wasn't going to help. He was going to stop this Inquisition, even though it would mean losing his mind to do it. And when someone started losing that, well...it was hard to keep it secret from others. They were probably all silently judging him already anyway, wondering why they'd brought this stupid, weak, crazy madman along. What could he possibly contribute to the cause?

He'd show them. They'd know what Rathil could do when he got angry once he broke into that fortress and found their weapons stash. Maybe then they'd stop looking down at him in that infuriating, condescending way that he knew they did. Again, he knew he had no reason to care what they thought of him. But it still bothered him. Made it more clear how pathetic he was. Rathil had always been pathetic. Maybe this one last time he could change that. Maybe he could make a real difference that actually did some good, instead of stealing atium shipments like he'd done in Luthadel or smuggling goods across Herdaz like he'd done decades before.

But in order to do that, he needed to act. It was time to stop sitting around, gathering dust and wasting away like he'd been doing all his life. It was time to become more than the worthless crem he knew he was. Then he would be able to die finding some semblance of peace. Death by his own hand or the Inquisition. But first, contributing to the plan.

He cleared his throat, stepping forward. "You know, back in the days of ash, I lived in Luthadel. And before you say anything, don't, because I have a point to this. I was the head of a secret thieving crew who outright stole shipments of goods in the city rather than scamming nobles or obligators. We actually got a lot of atium doing that, making it our main objective. Which is why I had enough of it that I burned long enough to become an savant." He was just reasserting that, so they remembered he still had that use. Slightly aware of possible future outcomes, though only instinctually. It was how he'd known someone was going to speak up against him, even if he didn't know who.

"My point is," he continued before he could be interrupted, speaking quickly, "no one in that crew ever knew I was the leader. All they knew was that they were led by an enigmatic figure who went by Firerust. They didn't know who he was, and never would have found out unless he gave himself away. Unless _I _gave _myself _away. Why? Because I walked among my own crew members, pretending to be just another underling for Firerust. I was just Rathil, another one of the mystery boss's cronies. No one ever knew I was their boss because I only appeared to them as one of their crewmembers. How come?

Because I acted completely differently as both. No one would ever have told us apart unless they recognized similarities in my voice when I spoke as Firerust. When someone met Firerust, I made sure they couldn't see my face, I changed my voice and attitude, and always burned atium so that I could know what they'd say before they did, letting them believe I could read their minds. I made myself seem supernatural, almost an urban legend, you know? I made it completely believable that I was only Rathil the underling, while keeping Firerust the crime boss a mystery. I played both parts so well and always covered up any discrepancies that no one suspected the act. I perfectly infiltrated my very own crew."

This time, he paused, waiting for someone to say something. They were probably wondering what this had to do with anything. Though saying this aloud made him wonder once again: which of those was more of an act, and which was the real him? He said it was an act, but he considered them to be more like two extensions of him. Both the real person. Despite appearing as different people, Firerust and Rathil were one. And yet somehow, at the same time, they were acts. He tried not to think to deeply on it, lest it starting hurting his brain. He wasn't a philosopher. Sometimes he wondered what he even _was _anymore.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looked up from the map he was studying, surprised at the sudden outburst from Rathil. He opened his mouth to make a comment, but held himself back, realizing after a few moments that the man was just trying to find his way. As Phoenix once had. He was finally living the life he'd thought he wanted at one point, away from Ire oversight, away from those on Nalthis who had relentlessly pursued him.

But then he had been betrayed by the man who he had once thought would carry on his legacy on Scadrial. The one who'd stolen from him and warped all his research into something Phoenix didn't even recognize anymore. The one called Detrare, who he knew was in that base. Detrare had taken everything from him, put him on the run again, and forced him to once again question all that he believed, after seeing his own research used toward such a malicious end.

So, instead of condemning the man, Phoenix studied him intently, then said something that would take both of them by surprise. "And you are that man no longer, but are in the process of becoming something greater; you just don't know it yet." He had noted the spren that had been following Rathil around for a while now from his forays into the Cognitive Realm. "Tell me, why do you fight today? You clearly have passion for this fight, your atium abilities are unique, and we will definitely put you on the team where they will be most helpful, but you and I both know that that will not make the difference today, at least not on its own. But if you fight for your ideals, for the man you are being pushed to become, you could end up becoming more than you think in the future."

**Fire:** Rathil blinked. He did not know how to respond to that. He was hoping someone would ask him what his point was, not get all philosophical with him. He didn't care about what he was going to become. He didn't plan on living beyond this experience. Destroying the Inquisition was the only reason he had left to live; that, and to protect Sam. Her and the others didn't need to die in this. Was that even a real reason? Did he care that much? He shouldn't have.

Whatever the case, Phoenix's calm, yet blunt and piercing response took him aback. The man had gotten the completely wrong idea of what Rathil was trying to get across! After standing dumbfounded for a moment, he opened his mouth. "Um...okay, well - I...was just pointing that out because I'm saying I could do that same thing now. Infiltrate that base and pretend I'm one of them without them suspecting anything, then con them from the inside and stab them in the backs. You know, to help make it all the more confusing for all of them when we all strike. I'm already good enough and crazy enough that they'd have no trouble believing I was a bloodthirsty maniac like them. That's what I was trying to...get across." He cleared his throat and shuffled uncomfortably, bothered by Phoenix's words.

**Tesh:** "Look, we need to get going!" Mahshi says, beginning to pace, hands clasped behind his back. "We're losing precious minutes!" _I'm on the verge of just running in there by myself. _That would be stupid. But when people are in danger, sometimes your only thoughts are stupid ones.

**Quick:** "You're right," Tarenwel replied. "Does anyone have a way to locate the others?"

**Tesh:** "I don't," Mahshi sighs. "But I have to ask if anyone has some pewter. I've been out for far too long."

**Quick:** "None that you can use," Tarenwel said. "All of my metal is solid steel, and stuffed to the brim with speed besides. If anyone has extra steel, I'd actually like a little myself; I hate wasting time I could be storing."

**Ink:** "I only have flakes to drink - I rarely carry steel. I have a few copper coins, but that's it," I say. We do need to get going. Every minute wasted is another minute we could have used.

**Tesh:** "Here." Mahshi flips a small, flat piece of steel at Tarenwel. "I've lost my file."

**Quick:** "Thanks," Tarenwel replied, immediately beginning to fill the piece of steel with speed.

**Ene:** "Sorry, guys, I only have gold and zinc." I shrugged. "But I do agree, we need to go. Who knows how many people are suffering in there? We need to take them down. But -" I glanced over at the Vindicators. "We should all plan together. I mean, if we're here to do the same thing, then why the storms are we separated right now?"

**Mist:** Dawn spoke up, raising his eyes and addressing the group. "We talk too much. If we are to act, we should do it now."

**Tesh:** "Agreed." Mahshi stands, and faces the group. "Each second we stand out here is another second they have to create a new Inquisitor." _Or hurt Tesh,_ he adds to himself. "I'm not saying we should charge in recklessly. But we have to talk with the Vindicators and come up with something to act on. We just need to find them."

**Ene:** "They're that way," I said, pointing in the direction I'd just come from. "Not too far. And I think they have some good ideas."

**Tesh:** Mahshi sets off towards the group of Vindicators. About halfway there, he glances over his shoulder at the Surgefinders. _They aren't doing anything, storm it! _

"We have to do something! We're wasting time!" he mutters under his breath. "Please, please be willing to do something." The Vindicators stand about twenty feet away. _Please. _

**Ene:** I jump up at once. "I'll come. You're right - we _really_ need to get moving." I stride over quickly, trying not to run.

**Quick:** Tarenwel watched Mahshi leave to go find the Vindicators. He almost got up and followed, but decided to stay where he was. Dealing with people had always been...difficult for him.

**Ink:** I agree. We need to get moving. "I'm ready when you are." I wanted to be in the main group who attacked the Inquisition's base, while a smaller team rescued Mahshi's sister.

**Tesh:** Mahshi draws level with the group. Interrupting their conversation, he speaks. "We've got to do something. Please tell me you are willing to do something."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looks up from his map at the one called Mahshi, Tesh's brother, standing in front of them, joined by a young woman Phoenix recalls seeing with the Surgefinders recently; he couldn't remember her name. "Of course we'll do something, when the time is right. What I haven't figured out yet is what to do with your group. I suppose I can't blame you for wanting to come here, what with your sister being imprisoned. But the reality is, you're all in grave danger, and none of you have even close to the Investiture required to be a match for the New Inquisition army. You would be best served in leaving this fight to us."

Phoenix puts his head down and briefly resumes the studying of his map. When the Surgefinders refuse to budge and remain standing, he looks up and sighs. "I suppose you aren't just going to turn around and go back either, are you? So then you risk ruining our own plans by attacking haphazardly and without aim." Phoenix thought for a long moment, turning to his fellow Vindicators, motioning to them to follow him out of audible range of the two Surgefinders.

"Thoughts? I think we have no choice but to include them. If they give Detrare too much warning before we're ready, then our attack will be for naught. I don't like this any more than you do, but that man _cannot_ be allowed to escape!"

**Ene:** I watched, Mahshi by my side, as the Vindicators walked off a little ways to talk.

_Storm this. I'm not a member of either of these groups. I'm done with ostracization. _I strolled over to where they were talking and joined in. "I agree. We might not be as powerful as some of you -" I eyed a few of them "- but we're not powerless. Include us." I waited.

**Tesh:** Mahshi follows Diona up to the group. "Then once we get to Tesh, we have her abilities as well. And do any of you have any pewter?"

**Sami:** Sam sighed, pulling a vial from her belt and tossing it at Tesh's brother. She could see the desperate look on their faces, in the way they stood. Sam couldn't stand desperation. It was a sign of weakness, and reminded her too much of her former self; the Samar who had once groveled at the feet of her superiors, doing whatever they told her to do without question and accepted the pain inflicted for not doing what they pleased, succumbing completely to the control they held over her. She would never be that person again, she promised herself.

"After that long in the Inquisition, not even Stormlight's going to help Tesh, cause their torture's not only going to be physical, which means one of you guys will have to be responsible solely for getting her out. Right now Tesh will be weak and useless." She refrained from adding _So are you._

**Cole:** Cole tapped his foot impatiently. "It's only out of respect for you and Sam that I haven't stormed this fortress yet," he told Phoenix. "You can include these children if you so desire, I care not." Under most circumstances Cole would have refused to bring along an unfamiliar group, but he was unsettled enough to not object now.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix looks over the two Surgefinders, seeing the desperation in their eyes. "Very well. We will do this for you to give you a chance, albeit a small one, to rescue Tesh." _And to ensure you stay out of our way_. Phoenix calls out and motions to the Surgefinders in the other camp to join them.

After everyone gathered, Phoenix begins, "Okay, everyone is here, so here's the plan. Both of our groups will Elsecall in together after we receive the signal from Wilberforce that the defenses are deactivated. Then I'll take your group and Elsecall you to the prison area where we expect Tesh to be kept. I will then leave you and return to the fight, and it will be up to you to find your way out of the base. I would also recommend that you wait a few minutes for the guards to be distracted by our imminent attack before moving in to rescue Tesh. Oh, and most importantly, do _not_ interfere with our attack in any way! I can't guarantee that Cole here won't _mistake_ you for an enemy combatant if you get in our way. Our mission is our first priority, and we are taking enough risks as it is in letting you in the base with us."

**Ene:** "Fine," I returned, rolling my eyes. "What's the signal?"

**Phoenix:** "You'll know it when you see it," Phoenix responded evenly. "It's Wilberforce's spren that will be giving us the signal."

**Fire:** Rathil didn't say anything more. First off, he didn't want Phoenix twisting his words around like a philosopher again, and also because he had nothing left to say. He was hoping these two groups would work together in some way for some reason, and it seemed they would. Even if it meant those Surgefinders were just there to save Teshani. Would he help with that? Should he have cared?

In the short time he'd known Tesh - perhaps an hour - she'd shown kindness to him, even while shattering his mind with the revelation that Scadrial hadn't been destroyed for the past three hundred years. And, it seemed, she was just as hateful of the Inquisition as him. She wanted it gone just as much as him. Maybe she could convince the Surgefinders to help them fight. Not that he was going to say that out loud. The other Vindicators didn't seem keen on getting help from them, even if they certainly needed it.

But Phoenix's threat about Cole not discriminating...well, if Rathil didn't hate Phoenix already, that tipped him over. Along with his weird rambling about choosing who you wanted to be and whatnot. The veiled threat also made him hate Cole even more, knowing that the Terrisman was capable of doing exactly that. Was it still too much to hope for Cole himself "accidentally" dying? Probably. At least he had Sam and Wilberforce to rely on not being so heartless. Hopefully. Maybe. Assuming Sam didn't lose focus and try killing a team member again. But he hoped that this time, they would work side by side in the slaughter.

The prospect of killing hundreds of people didn't faze Rathil, strangely. It helped to think of them not as people, but as inhuman monsters, like all the storming Inquisitors were. The only way to stop these monsters was to kill them all. There would be no reconciling with them or talking them out of it. There couldn't be. They needed to be slaughtered. It wasn't exactly the morally appealing way to solve the problem, but it solved the problem nonetheless. That's how the Vindicators worked. That was why he'd wanted to join them. But that didn't mean they had to make threats against their own allies. Even if they weren't friendly with the Surgefinders, the enemy of the enemy was a friend.

_Let's just get going_, Rathil thought, staring at the castle in the distance. He'd seen palaces like those before. It would be like Luthadel in the Final Empire, breaking into a house lord's keep and ransacking it. Except Rathil had never done that. His thieving crew had worked differently. Regardless, there was a small excitement that came with breaking into a building that only a true thief could know.

Rathil fingered the silver-aluminum dagger in his right pocket and one of the obsidian knives in his left one. Then he brushed his fingers against the gold medallion Phoenix had given him. One thing he didn't have to hate the man about. Over the past couple weeks since that fight at the Horneater Peaks, he'd been storing health inside it, bit by bit each day. He hadn't been that active, so there had been no harm in storing. He now had enough stored to heal from a few mortal injuries. Storms, it was hard to get used to not sucking in Stormlight to heal himself.

When were they going to strike?

The door to the Canton building burst open. Detrare and the other obligators around him swivelled around. Skaa were rushing into the room. They were armed. It was happening. The rebellion that had been brewing ever since the Survivor of Hathsin had started his uproar. It was happening in full force. Ministry buildings had never been stormed like this before.

About time.

As the other obligators cried out and began to flee, Detrare instantly fell to his knees in surrender. "Wait, wait!" he cried. "Please, we surrender! Don't hurt us!"

Prelan Presin stopped and turned to him in disgust. "What is this?" he shouted. "You'd choose your own life over service to the Lord Ruler? Our god? What of your devotion to Him?"

_I've lost that_, Detrare thought. And as a result of it, he'd come to welcome the prospect of the skaa rebellion. There needed to be change. What use was there to be devoted to a cause that did nothing, one that tried to keep everything the same for centuries? Detrare would rather the Final Empire collapsed. This world needed change, and people needed to cease stopping up their emotions and working in drudgery. Detrare wasn't going to go down fighting change.

But that didn't mean he was suddenly acting like he was on the side of the skaa. Lord Ruler, no. There was no act to what he was doing now; he genuinely feared for his life! There wasn't going to be any defiance against these people. They could - they would - kill him on the spot for showing even the slightest bit of resistance. After all, he was an obligator. They probably saw obligators as worse than the nobles, and what skaa didn't have disdain for the nobility? It had only been a matter of time before the people would rise up in rebellion. They would do all they could to overthrow the Final Empire, and that included the Steel Ministry.

Presin turned to the skaa man in front with defiance. "How dare you defy -" He was cut off mid-sentence as his head was cut off by the skaa man's sword.

Detrare couldn't suppress a surge of satisfaction at the sight of that, even if it was a bit gruesome. _Serves you right, I suppose_, he thought. Defense against the petty, suppressed skaa probably wasn't in the stupid protocol, was it? He bowed to the ground, the only obligator in the room to have done so. Presin was the only one who'd stood in defiance. The others were all fleeing further into the building, unequipped and unprepared to fight. Some of them made it out of the room; others were cut down in their tracks.

Skaa were gathered around him, angry, ready to kill. Fortunately for Detrare, he'd instinctively begun Pulling on their sense of compassion. Would they really kill someone who had surrendered to them in cold blood?

Detrare looked up to see the same man who'd beheaded Presin holding a bloodied sword point-first at his face. There was murder in his eyes. "And why shouldn't I, noble scum?" he growled.

"Well, I - I'm not noble. I gave up -"

"Shut up!" the man said, raising his sword. Not what he'd wanted to hear.

"Wait!" Detrare cried out, holding up his hands and Rioting the man's compassion further. But not too hard, lest the man know something was interfering with his emotions. "I'll tell you where the others are!"

The man hesitated. "The other what?"

"The other obligators," he said quickly. "You won't find all of them in these Canton buildings. There are secret locations hidden around the city where they are hiding in order to spy on the skaa from close up! I know where you can find all of them and route them out!" He couldn't explain the nature of the Soothing stations, because if the rebels knew obligators could influence people's emotions, they'd have more reason to be suspicious of him, no matter how honest he was being. He also didn't care how dishonorable it would seem to sell out his comrades so quickly. He wanted the skaa to succeed in their rebellion, but more importantly, he wanted to live.

"How am I supposed to believe you?" the man asked, seeming less angry and perhaps...slightly curious? _Yes_, Detrare thought, Pulling on that curiosity.

"If I was lying," he responded quickly, "you'd find out soon and kill me anyway. But if I'm telling the truth, which I am, then I pray that you'll spare me."

He dared to look up at the eyes of the man whose hands his life was in. "I want it all to fall. I want change just as much as you do, even if for different reasons. Let me help you overthrow the Lord Ruler's reign. You will be freed from enslavement, and I will be freed from this Steel Ministry. Please, believe me."

For a moment, no one spoke. Then the man lowered his sword.

"What do you think you're doing?" one of his companions asked.

"I'm gonna make sure he's telling the truth," the man said, obviously having calmed down, but still with a glint of rage in his eyes. The rage of one who had been oppressed for far too long, the rage of one who had enough of that oppression, the rage of one who was finally going to do something about it. There was so much more that people were capable of when they used their emotions. Obligators in those Soothing stations couldn't understand that. And now, they were going to die once he gave them away.

"Get me a map and show me where they are," the man growled. "If they aren't there, I'll kill you."

"And if they were there and they've fled by the time you get there?"

The man growled again. He was doing a lot of that. "Don't push me."

Detrare quickly got to work mapping out the locations of all the Soothing stations in Luthadel he knew of for the skaa to destroy. That would help them in overthrowing the city.

By the next morning, everything had changed. The Lord Ruler was dead, killed by a Mistborn girl of all people. Never would Detrare have expected something as magnanimous as that. But he had done his part in helping. The Steel Ministry was now mostly destroyed, and what was left of it was run by the last Inquisitor in Luthadel, who was on the side of the skaa. Detrare had suspected Marsh, but now he knew the man's loyalties for sure. Apparently, he had killed all the other Inquisitors in their sleep. And before that, earlier that same evening, the Lord Ruler had transferred leadership of the Steel Ministry from the Canton of Orthodoxy to the Canton of Inquisition without Detrare even having heard about it until after his god was dead. Crazy things.

Another thing he'd found out was that he was not the only obligator to have surrendered. Others had given up and chosen to side with the skaa rebellion, just as some of the nobility had done. In fact, the skaa had put one of their nobles on the throne! The heir to the Venture household, no less! That had certainly confused Detrare, but he would live with the consequences. Better yet, he would live! Like the others who had surrendered, he was spared. The skaa weren't all that vengeful; they were willing to show mercy. Good. His gambit of giving away the Soothing stations had worked. Those were no more, as was Presin, as was all of that standard procedure protocol. Freedom.

Detrare was now free to do as he wished. And once he found what he wanted to do, there was nothing to keep him from it, so long as he kept it secret. He wanted to know more about the world he lived in, and what could be beyond it. He wanted to _learn_. In addition to that, he wanted to further study what his own Canton had specialized in. _Hemalurgy_. The biggest downside to the Collapse, as the event of the rebellion came to be known as, was that the Inquisitors were dead. But there was so much more to their nature that hadn't been tapped into yet. Hemalurgy was capable of so much more. It had also created koloss and kandra, but what else? It demanded further study.

This hunger to learn had led Detrare to eventually finding a way to leave Scadrial. Before that, he'd played along, serving under Emperor Venture as the nobleman sought to conquer the world in order to maintain order. He never did anything major to serve the emperor like obligators such as Noorden did, but he served that empire nonetheless. And then he'd learned that something was trying to destroy the world. A force of power known as Ruin. When more Inquisitors had shown up on Scadrial and an invisible force began controlling koloss, Detrare realized something: this Ruin was the source of Hemalurgy.

In the midst of all the events leading to the end of the world, Detrare was one of the few who had managed to survive. After the Catacendre, he'd found out how to leave Scadrial, and his journeys had taken him to a place far, far away in the Cognitive Realm: Silverlight. There, he had continued his studies in Hemalurgy and taught its nature to other scholars there, as well as learning about all the other cosmere worlds and the history of the universe. He'd learned of Adonalsium and the other fifteen Shards. Some were more known than others, but learning of them had taken secondary precedence to his studies of Hemalurgy.

Those had eventually led to him actually practicing it once again, something he hadn't done since his days as an obligator before the Collapse, when he'd met the Elantrian scholar Saodin. They developed a partnership that led to a large research team in which he'd served under Saodin practicing Hemalurgy. Eventually, Saodin had become disillusioned with practicing it, just as Detrare had become increasingly fascinated with it and the concept of Ruin. As a result of that, the two had a schism and Detrare had led their underlings to break off from Saodin's weak leadership and start something better and new. That had led to the founding of the New Inquisition.

**Tesh:** "Thank you for _letting_ me _help_ you rescue my _sister._ Storm it, I am not totally incompetent." Mahshi rams his hands into his pockets and glares at Phoenix. He then glances at Diona, and asks, "You have a Shardblade?"

**Ene:** I shake my head. "Twinborn. Rioter-Bloodmaker. No Blade here, sorry - not that that means I'm useless, either."

**Tesh:** "This is going to be rusting difficult," Mahshi mutters. "Storm it. Maybe...yes...might work..." He shakes his head, realizing he has been staring vacantly at Diona. "Sorry. Should we get started?"

**Ene:** I nod, then turn to the Vindicators impatiently. "Are any of you coming with us?"

**Fire:** Rathil waited throughout all the conversation, trying to exercise patience. It was an acquired trait when one lived as long as he did. But it was wearing away fast. He _needed _this, and they were _so close_.

Detrare sighed in contentment, taking a break from filling his belly. This was one of the greatest nights he'd had in ages. Tomorrow, they would go to victory. _Nothing can ruin this moment. _He giggled to himself. _Oh, right_. Ruin _this_. _So many applications to that word. _To him, that word was sacred. That was something those concerned with morality over divine purpose could never understand.

They would never know just how incorrect they were in going against God's will. But that was primarily because they wouldn't live long enough to see the fruits of his work. All those people who wanted to do the "right thing" would poof away like the mists in sunlight once the Fulfillment was accomplished. Detrare leaned forward and resumed gorging himself. It felt good to be on Adonalsium's side.

**Tesh:** _It's time. _Now. Right now.

The three of us stood in a line, backs to the caravan and faces to a new life, and the rising sun. "Ready?" I whispered to Mahshi and Sazin.

"Yes," Mahshi whispered in reply.

"Ready," Sazin grinned. She was looking at the whole thing like a toddler would look at a new book, and she wasn't much older than that.

A grin suddenly split my face too. "We're actually leaving! Leaving all of this behind! Finally!" Mahshi grinned back, and Sazin did as well, several gaps in her teeth showing.

"Let's go."

We began our trek to the Shattered Plains in high spirits, but it didn't last long. Before long, we had to weather our first highstorm. We ended up spending the night in a crevice in the rock, out in the Unclaimed Hills.

Weeks of endless walking. We ended up carrying Sazin most days. Our supplies grew steadily lower, and soon we hardly had anything at all left. On the second day after our supplies were completely wiped out, we saw a trail of smoke on the horizon. Sazin rode on my back, Mahshi carrying both bags.

"Tesh. Sazin. Look. Smoke," Mahshi whispered. Suddenly he began to yell, "Smoke! We're here! Finally!"

Sazin looked up from where she had been resting her head on my shoulder. "Good. I'm really, really hungry." She put her head back down.

"Yay, " I said, smiling. "Let's go find Uncle Sebarial and see if he'll let us in."

"And give us some food," Sazin mumbled from my shoulder.

"That too," Mahshi agreed, smiling.

Mahshi and I scanned the warcamps, looking for Sebarial's flag. We eventually found it, and began to walk toward it from behind.

"What?" the guard grunted when we arrived.

"We're here to see our great-uncle," Mahshi said. "Uh, sir."

The soldier frowned at the sir, then spoke. "Any chance I would know of this uncle of yours?"

"Um, yes. Highprince Sebarial."

"Suuure..."

"Who is it?" a voice from the guardhouse yelled.

"Few lighteyed kids who look like ****ation itself, claiming to be the highprince's relatives."

"Eh. Just let them through. They're probably just trying to find a place to spend the night."

The guard sighed, but gestured to the warcamp. We walked into the place we had been walking to for weeks.

**Fire:** Detrare wore a plain black suit to make blood less visible on it. He'd had enough experience with Hemalurgy before that he was used to making a bloody mess of things, but this was going to be different. Around him, others were standing still, weapons and tools at the ready. They were poised to do what they felt needed to be done, though only some had followed his example and dressed in black. Hopefully, the process of capturing a Splinter was like that of capturing a spren within a gemstone. You attracted it with something it was inherently drawn to. So, could a tiny Splinter of Ruin that was possibly drifting separate from Harmony be drawn by a strong demonstration of ruin?

He felt nervous. He'd seen death before, even been the one to kill before. But that was only with Hemalurgy. He'd never straight-up murdered anyone before, and not on the level he and his comrades were about to do.

The other prospective Hemalurgists who had worked with - or rather, worked _for _\- him with Saodin were each standing next to something and holding an object. Some of them stood by small tables with cups, plates, and platters on them, holding mallets or rocks in their hands. A few others were standing by various potted plants, holding torches and bottles of whiskey.

Strange sights indeed. They probably looked like the makings of some strange cult activity. Technically, they were. And then some few were standing by people tied to chairs, holding knives, clubs, axes, and the like. The poor people in the chairs were tightly bound, gagged, and bruised. Detrare felt sorry for what was going to happen to them. But he was going to do whatever it took to find that Splinter, to bring it to him.

If the power of Harmony consisted of slightly more Ruin than Preservation, due to the small bit of Preservation's power that manifested as innate Investiture within all Scadrians, then there had to be some amount of excess Ruin drifting around somewhere in the Expanse of the Vapors. And if there was, Detrare wanted to catch it. What better way to utilize the practice of Hemalurgy than to have control over its source? Or at least a tiny portion of that source. Most of Ruin was obviously fused with Preservation, creating Harmony, a power that was held by the Hero of Ages, the Terrisman Keeper named Sazed. Detrare had known of him before his Ascension. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that the New Inquisition get ahold of that excess bit of Ruin, no matter how small it might be, in order to perfect their Hemalurgy.

Which was why, held in a stone pedestal on top of a small table in the center of their setup, was a large gemstone, the type you would find on Roshar. Detrare forgot what type of stone it was, but the reddish-magenta orb was perfectly cut to hold Stormlight indefinitely - or any form of gaseous Investiture, for that matter. It had been specifically crafted for that purpose a while back by Detrare himself. It was just like those legendary gems of Rosharan lore, such as Honor's Drop, but made to capture more than just a simple spren. It gleamed with the violet-red light of at least five full broams.

Looking around him, Detrare realized that Saodin would never have gone along with this. The Elantrian was much more careful and restrained in Hemalurgic practices, which was something Detrare admired in that it was good for Saodin to know the limits of his moral character. But as their Hemalurgy project went, his backing out of it, which had led to the fallout between the two of them, was problematic to the future of the organization. An organization that was going to take a step further today and now. Today they stopped being just a group of Hemalurgy practitioners and became an actual group of killers and destroyers.

It was a daunting thought. It had taken a while for Detrare to decide on this, but it felt necessary in furthering this practice. People had to be devoted to something. The existence of the Shard of Devotion proved that. And this was what he was dedicating himself to. Because of there was a Shard of Ruin, things had to be destroyed. Chaos was a necessity of the universe. So someone needed to continue Hemalurgy, and he was one of the only people remaining who knew how it worked.

Detrare took a deep breath, walking over to one of the people tied to a chair. They were unconscious. Good. At least he wouldn't have to put up with screams from this person. This was an uncomfortable enough situation as it was. He pulled the large, gleaming dagger from his belt. He would have prayed to an unknown god for forgiveness for this, but he knew that Adonalsium was the one true God and that this was what God wanted. Destruction was needed. The existence of Ruin proved that. There were enough people accomplishing the will of Preservation. There were plenty of Allomancers. Hemalurgists were needed to counter that. But now, Detrare was becoming something much more than just a Hemalurgist. This wasn't a spike in his hand to drive through someone's chest. This was a dagger. One meant only for killing.

And so, Detrare called out, "Begin!" and drove the dagger downward into the unconscious fellow's neck. Then did it again. And again. Then went for the top of the head. Then the chest. Then he slashed the knife everywhere across the person's face, then his neck, then his torso. Blood was spraying everywhere, and around him he heard screams of pain, the crunching and shattering of glass and pottery, the sound of blades cutting flesh. Manifestations of Ruination all around them. It was...beautiful. It almost felt strange to think that. He didn't think of it as beautiful like a painting or a field of flowers would be. It was beautiful in that it was God's will made manifest. He had come to view Hemalurgy in such a way, even more so when he'd gotten his first spike.

The plants were lit on fire by the torches, the cups and plates were smashed to bits, the very tables they were on were splintered by axes. The poor people tied to chairs were being butchered by swords, maces, knives, axes, barbed chains, and other various weapons. All with a sinister reddish glow reflecting off of them from the gem below the darkness of an infinite, endless black sky. Detrare buried the knife in the fellow's skull, then picked up a hatchet next to him to start chopping away at both the man's bones and the chair he was bound to. They were destroying _everything_ they had brought with them. Everything except the table with gemstone on it. He'd ordered for that to be left alone.

As they continued for a couple minutes more, doing everything they could to cause as much destruction and slaughter as possible in their little setup, tables burned, blood ran all over the misty ground, shards of glass and pottery flew everywhere, bodies were mutilated even further, the air around them began to darken, the weapons themselves were being broken - wait.

Darkening. Yes, it was getting darker around them. Detrare stopped, panting for breath, and looked up. Indeed, there seemed to be a transparent, wispy black fog coating the air around them. Or at least, what should have been air. Detrare didn't really understand the mechanics of the Cognitive Realm. Only that the actions of Shards - or Splinters of them - were more visible in it. And something had been drawn to them.

Detrare realized that it was here. He'd been right! There was a tiny, distinctly infinitesimal piece of Ruin that was separate from the rest of Harmony. It was here! Their actions had summoned it! "Keep going!" he shouted excitedly. "We're almost there!"

They kept up the carnage, most of the men obviously getting exhausted by it and some of them disgusted by it. Detrare saw the wisps of darkness grow thicker, gathering around them and drawing closer to the center. He could almost _feel_ another presence right next to him, as if the air had warped, becoming thicker and colder. As if the breath of a god was running down his spine. He was sure they all felt it.

He stepped closer to the center of the area they had set up, where the gemstone was, dragging the mutilated corpse with him. He kept on butchering it in desperation, hacking away with all the vigor his increasingly tiring body could muster. The faint black fog condensed around them even further, gathering toward where the gemstone was as well. They were getting close. "It's here!" he yelled, hoping the others would stop their slaughter for a moment to listen. "Draw it in! Form a close perimeter around the stone and keep going!"

A few of them listened to him and dragged whatever they were destroying over to the little table. The black fog was getting thicker and its reach getting smaller, closing into that small space between them. A few wisps of it touched the gemstone. Detrare wiped blood off his face to watch it even as he hacked away at the corpse's torso. _Yes. So close. _More wisps of fog touched at the stone, then seeped into it. Yes, yes! The process did work like that of capturing a spren! It was drawn by something it liked, something it related to, then couldn't help but be caught by the gem and the light within it.

Suddenly, all the fog became completely opaque, coalescing into one small cloud of pulsing, whirling darkness. All of them stopped what they were doing to gawk at the sight of it as it whirled around, finally seeping into the gemstone until almost none of it was still visible. The other men shied back, but Detrare stepped forward and touched the stone.

Instantly, a pain surged through his head and he screamed. Something was inside him, filling his mind, his body, even his sight. Nothing but…well, nothing. Blackness couldn't even describe it anymore. It was just a torrent of chaos covering everything he saw. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that only opened something behind his eyelids that consumed all his vision. It consumed everything.

Detrare saw everything come to an end in the matter of an instant. He saw the universe changing at an accelerated rate, breaking down and dissolving into the void. He watched as stars burned to their limits, then collapsed and exploded into supernovae, while all the planets around them burned and crumbled before being crushed by the oncoming waves of radiation.

He saw the deaths of all worlds, the last light of a candle fading out into a puff, the last person alive drawing their final breath, the last leaf falling from the final tree, the last ocean boiling into a burning, choking mist, the final rock tumbling down from the last mountain from weathering and erosion, the final words written by human hands fading away, the last city being obliterated by tempests, the final manifestation of thought disappearing from whatever remained of the Cognitive Realm, and even the Shards themselves shattering into infinite Splinters that tore through all three Realms.

As each star, world, and piece of God met its end, the cosmere - the known universe - was filled with heat and raw Investiture, and was reduced to nothingness. Finally, as all things burned away in the chaotic death that was the true end of all things, the miasma of total destruction tore a hole in reality that pierced through all things Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual, opening up the entire cosmere to become one enormous perpendicularity, uniting the Realms and mixing the awful force of eternal chaos throughout all them, crushing all that remained and mixing the three Realms into one mind-numbingly enormous blend of entropy, decay, and ruin.

All things were reduced to the formless Investiture they started out as, the cycle of the universe being complete. All things were brought to an end. The cosmere-wide perpendicularity became a singularity that swallowed up all Investiture until truly nothing remained, the fundamental energy drifting away into a Beyond that existed beyond any comprehension of even the most divine beings. Everything was destroyed. The universe had come to an end. There was nothing but chaos. And then...not even that. It was just...nothing. All of the cosmere had ended. Just as it should be. Just as all things should be. Ruined.

This was a vision not of what was, perhaps not even what would be, but what _could _be. It was too much to comprehend, but it blasted through Detrare's simple human mind in just a few seconds. For the slightest moment, he saw the true end of everything. At that moment, he finally realized what true Ruin was.

Detrare forced open his eyes and released his hold on the reddish gemstone. He fell back, collapsing to the ground and still convulsing with overwhelmed shock. He had just seen the end of existence in a couple of seconds. That couldn't have been healthy on the body or the mind. But the soul...who knew? After his vision returned and his head stopped throbbing, Detrare sat up, his cohorts gathered around him in concern. He couldn't hear what they were saying, and didn't care. The first thing he did was look at the gemstone. It was still gleaming its red-violet glow, but within, at the very center, there was a still shifting mass of black shadow. Faint, but distinct when you knew what difference to look for. There was definitely something inside the stone other than Stormlight now. And whatever it was, Detrare had just gotten a look into its incorporeal mind.

He stood up, stumbling toward it. Tentatively, he rested a hand on it once again, shoving away whoever it was who was trying to pull him away from it. This time, fortunately, he received no vision. But instead, he felt...something. A presence coming from the gemstone; a conscience. There was definitely something living within it now, drawn by the Ruinous slaughter they had caused and the power within the gem. This being was connected to him now, somehow. For an instant, a man and a sliver of a sliver of God had shared a mind. Detrare had glimpsed eternity.

"I cannot do what it is you envisioned," he whispered to the thing within the stone. No one man or even an army of the most Ruinous could do that. "But…" he licked his lips and gulped, not wanting to disappoint this thing, "I suppose I can try to do what I can."

That day had been the catalyst for the transformation of Detrare's little band of Hemalurgists into the fully-fledged New Inquisition organization. Detrare had taken a greater interest in the Intents of the Shards of Adonalsium, particularly Ruin, Passion - known also as Odium - and Devotion, letting them shape the formation and mandate of the Inquisition and its legendary Fulfillment.

It wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't caught that Splinter in the first place. There was a mind within that thing, a living consciousness. Its sentience wasn't as pronounced as that of a human, so far as Detrare knew, but it still still...whispered to him, influenced his thoughts and personality, affecting him even more with each spike he added to himself. Urged him to more Ruinous actions. He had it to thank for him opening his eyes to the highest truth: that all things had to come to an end, according to the will of Ruin.

This led him to also encourage people to give in to their Passions, in order to be more effective in the organization and to live life to the fullest before all life ended. It influenced him to encourage Devotion in order to create unity and loyalty amongst the members of the Inquisition. Detrare was fully aware of how much the Splinter affected him, twisting his mind to become as Ruinous, Passionate, and Devoted as he was.

And he thanked it for that. A small, infinitesimal portion of Adonalsium himself was bonded to him, leading him to accomplish its will. It wasn't a Nahel bond or anything like that. This Connection was...different. But, as he gleefully found out once he continued Hemalurgic practices, it allowed him to divest the ability to influence Hemalurgic constructs from Harmony himself. Ruin was on his side, in even such a small way as the presence of Splinter, and he was on its. But Detrare never knew how it felt about being imprisoned for so long. He hoped it was grateful for his deceitful act, because he had used it to cause more Ruin than it was able to when drifting about the Expanse of the Vapors. But it would stay within the orb for as long as the Inquisition lasted.

It was only to be released under the strictest, most dire of circumstances. For now that it was in a condensed form since being trapped in the gemstone, it was possible that it could directly control things as Ruin did if ever freed. Detrare hoped to save that for the end of the Fulfillment. Time would tell.

**Phoenix:** After an awkward silence of non-response from the other Vindicators, Phoenix notes, "It appears not."

Right at that moment, a strange spren-like creature approaches. It is somewhat translucent, with wings and odd features, somewhat akin to an owl. The creature begins to motion to the group frantically.

"All right, that's the signal. What you see there is Wilberforce's companion, which means that our friend has found a way to disable the base's defenses. Everyone gather around, please. Be sure to stay close and that you are in contact with the group." After a few moments, both groups of the Vindicators and Surgefinders are gathered together in a ring.

"All right, let's be off then." Phoenix Elsecalls the group away, and they all reappear in a dark, cave-like hallway with iron bars on either side, a few of which held prisoners who seemed startled by the group's arrival. Faint howls of laughter, dancing and music echoed down the corridor. Phoenix smiled. He _was _good with maps, after all. He immediately erected a speed bubble around the group before the prisoners had a chance to react.

"Okay, see that door at the end there?" Phoenix gestures to a doorway at the far end of the corridor. "That is my best guess as to the location of Tesh. What further confirms that is the two guards you see over there. Hopefully they have also participated in whatever revelry is going on here tonight; that will work in your favor. Good luck."

Phoenix joins with Cole, Sam and Rathil and they Elsecall to the second location on Phoenix's map. The group appears in what looks to be a janitorial closet of sorts. Phoenix erects another speed bubble around the Vindicators. "Here we are. I didn't want to pop in to Detrare's office right away in case his full legion of head Inquisitors were with him, but my best guess is his office is the the larger room at the end of this hallway to the left. Whenever you all are ready. I suggest we go out and hit whoever we see hard and fast."


	14. I cry

**Ene:** As Phoenix takes the Vindicators away, I look around at the others. Our speed bubble is gone now, and the guards are noticing our presence. They do look drunk, fortunately, but they're still armed. All around us, prisoners yell and gasp. A few are too weak to. I clench my teeth, but focus on the issue at hand first. Quickly, I call to the others. "What's our plan?"

**Fire:** Rathil took a deep breath. _Here we go_. "I'm gonna go find where they keep all their weapons first. Then I'm gonna find the closest room full of people and light it up. Are we all splitting up?"

**Phoenix:** "I don't have any plan after this point. Well, except to end Detrare, of course. As for weapons, what exactly did you have in mind? Now that I have remembered this spot, so to speak, I can hop on over to the Vindicator's base, grab for you whatever suits you, and be back in just a few moments."

**Fire:** Rathil shook his head. "Better we take away what's theirs before they can get to them. Use their weapons against them and leave them with less to fight us with. They probably have a lot, anyway."

**Phoenix:** "Suit yourself. But at least let me go with you in a speed bubble so you don't alert anyone before we're ready."

**Sami:** Sam felt dizzy. A particular smell hit her senses; something familiar. A shaky inhale. She was grasping at fragments of memories.

_"...you insolent child." _

_A slap. Rough hands jerking her onto a table. A man screaming. _

_"...she's good for nothing, anyway." _

_Metal, dripping crimson. _

_"****ation, hold the girl still!" _

_A flash of red. _

Voices snapped her out. Sam stared unmoving at the stone wall, pushing down the rising nausea. Who were those people? And why couldn't she remember?

**Fire:** "Fine," Rathil grumbled after a moment. _I don't need to be nannied around this place. I'll just find a room of people, kill them, and move on. I don't need a babysitter to make sure I don't get caught. _At least Phoenix was seemingly concerned for his well-being, which was surprising. Rathil wouldn't have expected that. Whatever got him the chance to get rid of these monsters.

**Phoenix:** After a few moments, Phoenix and Rathil return with weapons, much more than they actually need for the fight. "We did some reconnaissance as well," Phoenix noted. "Fortunately, we have two things in our favor. First, it seems like everyone that we have come across is not alert at all, and most are participating in one of the most sickening revelries I have ever seen. The stench of alcohol is nauseating.

Second, it seems like they relied heavily on the base's defenses, which Wilberforce has completely compromised. It's almost like he _infected_ the Investiture powering it somehow, using his Cognitive essence as a catalyst. I do hope he's all right, although I am concerned that there is no sign of him. There's also a..._presence_ here, one that is very powerful if sensed from the Cognitive Realm. It's almost as if one of the Unmade is here, although the power is not of Odium. I don't think it has sensed us yet, but that is definitely our greatest threat. I think we'll find Detrare wherever that _thing_ is."

**Cole:** Phoenix was right about the presence. Cole had to stop burning bronze because of the overwhelming pulses of Investiture. His coppercloud only dimmed the cacophony slightly. _Wait, there's something else. Beneath the pulsing. _Cole tapped his nicrosil, doubling the strength of his bronze. Then he flared it. _Was it my imagination? I can't feel anythi - _

A pulse significantly stronger than those before resounded through his mind, and with it, a single command. _RUIN. _

It was like being Soothed and Rioted, but on an unprecedented level. Instead of an emotion being enhanced, it was a primal urge. The urge to turn everything around you to dust. Every other emotion inside of him was overpowered by this urge. Without any thought, he raised a dagger and thrust it down at Phoenix.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix felt the sharp pang from behind. Startled, he Elsecalled a short distance away, began burning bendalloy, and turned to see the darkness in Cole's eyes as he raised a bloody dagger toward him again. Phoenix began compounding gold to heal himself, and out of instinct grabbed Sam and Rathil, held onto the weapons he and Rathil had gathered, and Elsecalled them all away, back to the prison with the others.

"Well," Phoenix began, looking around at the startled faces of the Surgefinders at their reappearance, "looks like we do all of this together after all. Let's go after those guards and get Tesh." Phoenix erects a speed bubble around Sam, Rathil and the Surgefinders, then looks around at their hesitation. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's attack, and fast! We have much greater problems that need dealing with afterwards."

**Cole:** _RUIN. _Just as the effects of the first pulse started to fade, another hit, just as strong as the last. The decades of instincts backfired.

Without a thought, Cole tapped pewter and iron, growing noticeably bigger. The form suited the monster he was becoming. Nobody was around, but that didn't stop his urge to Ruin. The same dagger that bloodied Phoenix soon was a useless hunk of metal from being thrust into a wall. Once he realized the dagger was no longer fit to Ruin, he tossed it to the side and simply punched the wall. All the bones in his fist immediately shattered, then mended in time for another hit. It took his hand being destroyed five times before he realized it wasn't working.

Frustration overcame him. He stepped back, tapped weight, then rammed the wall. The wall caved beneath his massive weight, and he stumbled through. A storm of bullets greeted him. Apparently the walls being pounded by a hulking monster as big as a koloss didn't go unnoticed.

_Ruin. _The third pulse didn't carry the raw strength of the previous ones, but it was no less effective. Even more barriers in his mind were broken down, letting some of the madness he carried deep down flow forth.

Once the pulse passed by, Cole couldn't help but let out a psychotic giggle. Bullets kept on slamming into him, but that only sent him deeper into the madness. One bullet lodged into his eye, interrupting the terrifying laughs. The bullet lodged, preventing it from healing. With a howl of rage, Cole reached up and wrenched his eye and the bullet out. When his hand lowered, all of the soldiers saw a bullet drop to the floor, then a face of a monster. The blood drained from many of their faces as Cole started running at them…

**Ene:** Before any of the others had a chance to say anything, Phoenix reappeared. "Well, looks like we do all of this together after all. Let's go after those guards and get Tesh." A speed bubble was suddenly around us again, slowing the guards mid-shout. _What?_ I opened my mouth, but he started talking again hurriedly. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's attack, and fast! We have much greater problems that need dealing with afterwards."

I jumped in before he ran off or whatever. "Whoa, whoa! Phoenix!" Wishing I could Soothe his sense of urgency away, I went on, "Before we start killing and rescuing, I...you can't just say that and then expect us to not have questions. Why did you come back?" I did a quick scan of the Vindicators. "And where'd Cole go?"

**Sami:** _What the heck?_ Sam shook her arm roughly from Phoenix's grasp and stepped back. "What happened to Cole? Why'd we leave him?"

Phoenix seemed to ignore her, promptly killing everyone and opening the prison door. She sighed internally, turning away when her eyes caught sight of something. A long dark red streak, stretching down the length of the wall...almost as if long ago someone had slid down, smearing their blood against the surface. Somehow, the sight made her shiver, her nausea still rising.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sighed, then responded, "Sorry, I know this is confusing. I promise I'll explain everything soon. For now, I can tell you that Cole is not himself...and it's better for all of us to be as far away from him as possible. I think he may be under the control of a presence I have felt here that may actually be the true enemy we face today. I promise I will explain more after we rescue Tesh. I really don't want to have to repeat anything with so little time to spare."

At that, Phoenix burst out of the speed bubble, created his own around himself, and compounded steel to make it to the first guard. He took a moment to analyze the man, recognized the pattern of Hemalurgy used, and systematically began removing the spikes in the correct order, using surges of compounded pewter to extract the spikes as quickly as possible with his bare hands. It was a gruesome job, to be sure, but would be the most effective way. Phoenix threw the guard's weapons away from him, using a dagger to deliver a fatal, pewter-enforced strike to the head between the eyes just to be sure as the guard collapsed to the ground.

Phoenix moved on to the second guard, who had had just enough time to began tapping his own steel as to not be an easy target. He turned to face Phoenix and drew a long, curved blade. Phoenix managed to extract the first spike before the man started glowing. _Great_, he thought to himself. Phoenix quickly cut the satchel of spheres at the man's side loose so whatever abilities the man had would be limited, throwing the bag down the corridor toward the still-confused Surgefinders who were mostly staring at the fight. Phoenix looked off to the side, where a vine-covered spren was lurking in the shadows. _Edgedancer. _

The man began gracefully circling him, his blade grazing Phoenix a few times, which Phoenix used his gold to heal before Elsecalling back to his lab, quickly grabbing a rifle, ammunition, and more spheres. Elsecalling back to the other end of the corridor, Phoenix took aim at the man down the hallway, who was somewhat confused still, and shot him in the head with an aluminum bullet. The man began to leak Stormlight as he healed the wound.

Phoenix took a second shot to the man's torso. The enraged man began to charge him, at which point Phoenix Elsecalled back to the prison cell door where the guard had formerly been a few moments ago and took a third shot to the back of the head. Phoenix compounded steel with a duralumin Push, to get close enough to remove the spike that gave the man the ability to tap steel. _Finally we're getting somewhere_, Phoenix thought to himself. Head wounds were always the hardest to recover from quickly, no matter your healing abilities, due to the disorientation they caused.

Phoenix quickly swallowed another vial of metals as the guard sliced through the arm he was using to down them. Annoyed, Phoenix compounded steel once more as he quickly regrew the arm by compounding gold. He managed to remove the remaining spikes from the man in short order, then drew a long, thin dagger to behead the man, piercing his brain between the eyes for good measure. Edgedancers always seemed to find a way to heal from things, but not from that combination.

Phoenix turned back to the Surgefinders and gestured to the prison door. "Well, shall we go in and make a rescue then?"

**Ink:** I glance at Phoenix. The Vindicators are more powerful than I gave them credit for. But if Cole's under the control of something...that's not good. "Why the rusts not?!" I respond to Phoenix's latest question.

**Fire:** Detrare sat back, enjoying the feeling of so much food in his stomach, then stopped filling the bendalloymind. He looked over to the gemstone lying on the table, reaching over to it pick it up once again.

And almost dropped it in surprise. _Samar_. She was _here_. He could sense her soul _here in the fortress_. Which meant - and then, with a gasp of horror, he could sense lives of members of the Inquisition winking out. _No, no, no, what is this? _Samar had finally come home. Unfortunately, she was on the wrong side and seemed to have brought company. They were killing members of the Inquisition!

Detrare stood up quickly. "My comrades in the Fulfillment!" he shouted hurriedly. The people in the room turned to him drunkenly or expectantly, hoping for another raucous victory announcement. Then they saw the worry on his face. "The Splinter has made known unto me that a group of invaders has infiltrated our fortress and is attacking us! To arms, now! Bring Ruin to them and make them regret they ever resisted God's will! Spread the word before anyone can be caught unaware! Stop filling your metalminds, heal your drunkenness, burn your metals, breathe in Stormlight, _whatever_! Just kill these invaders! The Knights of the Cosmere think they can stop Ruin's plan, but they have not known the true power of we, his disciples. Now go, go, go! _Now_!" With that, he healed away all his drunkenness and cleared his thoughts by compounding gold and zinc, trying to think of how to counter this.

No...Cole was here. Detrare had to warn him about his children before he killed half the people in the fortress. The entirety of the Fulfillment on Scadrial was in here, save for the few sent to kidnap those two Terrismen. But why were people dying so quickly? He searched through the gemstone, trying to figure it out, then realized a strong Connection to Cole Pushing and Pulling on his emotions and mind. _What… _

The Splinter. It was acting on its own. It sensed how powerful Cole was and took the chance to try causing as much instant Ruin as possible when he'd ignored it. It had taken control of itself! It didn't know how by building up the Fulfillment, Detrare was increasing the chances of potential Ruin in the future across all worlds. It was trying to kill everyone, no matter whose side they were on; its only thought was instant destruction. He'd given it too much slack after ignoring it for so long. His laziness - his engagement in his Passions - could ruin the situation for all of them.

Detrare quickly spoke to the Splinter within as he stood up and rushed from the room, others standing and following suit. "Stop that now. You are not in control here. I know you want to cause Ruin as much as I do - more than I do, but you need to stop now so we can cause more Ruin later. Leave him alone." Detrare tried Pulling on that inexplicable Connection to Cole, tugging on his sense of compassion, mercy, regret. Anything to make him consider his actions and stop to think about the ramifications of what he was doing so Detrare could tell him about the danger his children were in.

But first he needed weapons, as did everyone else. He spoke into the gemstone again, urging Bloodbath, Maim, Eheron, all the other lieutenants in charge of rooms to warn them of the danger and be ready to destroy it. The Fulfillment was arriving a day sooner than expected. It was time for some bloodshed. Those Knights wouldn't leave here alive or without being torn to bloody chunks and pieces.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix and the others rushed into the prison cell, finding Tesh barely alive, looking as if she'd been tortured. Huddled into a corner, Phoenix spotted a slim figure that seemed to be a very diminished honorspren. He also noticed, due to his background in Hemalurgy, an almost unnoticeable spike sticking from the side of Tesh's neck.

Phoenix quickly removed the spike and simultaneously placed a gold medallion on her chest. "Tesh, if you can hear me, please draw on this medallion. Your wounds are grave."

**Fire:** _Storming Cole, throwing everything off_, Rathil thought. _I'd really like to blow his head off or something. _Which seemed to be the kind of thing these...guns did. He'd never really used one of them, but apparently they'd been around on Scadrial for a number of years.

_Time for a new experience_, he thought, noting the shotgun and rifle strapped to his back, the pistol in his hand, and the other pistol tucked into his belt alongside the large number of obsidian and stained-glass daggers he'd swiped and a couple of stone clubs shaped like Inquisitor spikes. He had some aluminum knuckles tucked into his pockets next to the knives he'd brought, along with a few sticks of big red candles that he hoped would do some form of damage somehow.

Something bothered him, though: those knives...they seemed familiar, along with the other swords, spears, and daggers in that weapons room. As if they were crafted in a design he'd seen before. At the moment, in all this hubbub, he couldn't bring himself to remember why it was familiar. Maybe he'd puzzle it out afterward. Assuming he survived. He hoped he would. Only because he still needed to see what Scadrial really looked like now. He needed that last bit of certifiable proof that his world still existed before he died. Then he would let himself die.

Rathil shook that thought away. _Not now_. Now was not the time for those suicidal urges. Being in that room full of weapons had been tempting enough. Those voices crying for him to join them in death were loudest at night when he tried sleeping, but they were also kind of loud when he was close to opportunities to die. One of the reasons he hated heights so much, for example. They always made him want to jump and get it all over with. Three weeks ago, he might have finally done it. But now he had a purpose. He had to ignore those urges. So many easy chances to just die were all around him...but that wasn't going to happen. Not yet, at least.

Rathil stormed away from the rest of the group, ignoring any call to stop if there would be any. They'd gotten him this far. Now it was time to finish what he came for. He just hoped they'd at least saved Tesh. That girl deserved better than she had fared so far. And they needed her in this fight. She actively hated this Inquisition and wanted it gone. They needed people like that.

He bolted down the hallway, following the sound of lots of laughing voices. They were coming from a downward set of stairs, leading to some basement below. Rathil took a breath, then carefully stepped down. This was the hour. He was going to do more killing tonight than he ever had before at any time. Unfortunately, it was time for some bloodshed. Rathil just vainly hoped he'd get out of here intact - physically and mentally.

**Sami:** Sam had never been able to recall her childhood. Surely, of course, she'd been able to remember at _some_ point in her life - rusts, she'd _lived_ it. The last five years had been a blur of not belonging, betrayal, bloodshed, and wandering, but she could at least _remember _them. Beyond that? She always hit a blank wall faster than you could blink. It was like her own brain didn't want her viewing those memories.

But now...as she stared numbly at the walls and inhaled that strangely familiar scent, it was as if there was suddenly a crack in the mental barrier. Small, unexplained memories were squeezing through, and sometimes she caught some of them. Particular tastes. Sounds. Textures. Sights.

She took a step forward. Then another. Her feet carried her from the jail room and out through corridors. She didn't know where she was going, but her _legs_ knew. She came to another room, turned, and stepped inside. _What… _

She knelt, palms pressing against the stone uncertainly. The familiar sensation of Stormlight leaving rushed through her and the stone floor beneath her exploded into dust.

**Phoenix: **Phoenix walked outside the cell door. The groans he heard from Tesh told him that she would probably come to soon. He no longer heard the raucous laughter of drunkenness and orgy; rather, they were now replaced by cries to arms. Maybe Cole was too dangerous to be around now, but at least he was doing some good. Curiously, Phoenix was able to distinguish sounds of a second battle coming from a different part of the fortress, closer to the prison than the janitorial closet where they had left Cole. _Now that's odd_, he thought to himself. Perhaps the acoustics were just odd here in Shadesmar, as many things were.

He smiled. At least some good was being done; members of the Inquisition were dying. Phoenix hoped that Detrare was there getting crushed by Cole, but also felt a spike of envy that he could be potentially missing out on a chance at his desired target. However, he couldn't risk going back there. Cole was stronger than Phoenix, and both men knew that Phoenix would always lose in a head-to head matchup. Well, a fair one at any rate.

Phoenix glanced down at the pile of spikes that was the result of his recent encounter with the proto-Inquisitors. _What a waste_, Phoenix thought to himself. But wait, what was this...was that...a _nicrosil_ spike he had removed? Phoenix stood, frozen in shock. The tip was still covered in fresh blood from the recent carnage he had participated in. There was a far greater chance that the ability stored in that spike was Allomantic nicrosil than Feruchemical. Soulbearers were _so_ much rarer than Nicrobursts.

The irony of that was that it was impossible to find medallions granting the Allomantic nicrosil abilities. Phoenix had tried for many years, but to no avail. They might not even exist. But this...Phoenix had sworn that he would never kill again in order to gain a new Allomantic or Feruchemical ability. But that hadn't been the reasoning behind this kill. Did that make it morally okay to take this power? Phoenix glanced up at Preston.

The spren stayed silent, but also made no move to intervene to stop Phoenix as he took up the spike and inserted it in the correct location on his body, promptly storing the newfound ability to burn nicrosil in a new empty nicrosilmind inside of him. Phoenix removed the spike and began compounding nicrosil, increasing his stored ability to burn the metal tenfold, then a hundredfold, until the metalmind was full.

He fumbled around in his bag for a brass medallion. _May as well be complete_. Now that he finally had the ability to gain any of the Scadrian abilities without the use of Hemalurgy, he only needed one more. Phoenix tapped the medallion, letting the ability to Soothe be stored into his final empty nicrosilmind. A few moments of compounding, and that too was full.

Phoenix was now effectively a Fullborn. He was no longer afraid of Cole, but he did still sense that he was outmatched by whatever the presence was. And if Cole was being influenced by this presence...then, as usual, Phoenix would proceed with caution. At the very least, he would have the element of surprise, as Cole wouldn't realize they were now evenly matched. Phoenix walked back into the cell to check on Tesh.

**Fire:** Rathil stood at the entrance to a large basement room, looking down at all the people partying below. How could they be so happy? How could they live with themselves, knowing what they stood for? They didn't deserve this happiness. He pulled the second pistol out of his belt and cocked both of them, pointing them at the unsuspecting people below. They didn't deserve to be alive. _God Beyond, if you're really out there, forgive me for what I must do. _

He opened fire. Cocked the guns. Fired again. And again. Everywhere. Direction didn't matter. This room was full enough that wherever he fired, he'd hit someone. Bodies were dropping. Five. Seven. Ten. Not enough. The people below screamed out in shock, looking for where the shots came from. He kept on firing until those guns stopped firing. They must have been out of bullets. At that moment, the people looked up and saw him. Unfortunately. Now they knew who was going to kill them.

Rathil dropped the guns and unslung the rifle and shotgun from his shoulders. As the people scrambled to stand up and run to him, he aimed with the rifle and fired. And fired again. These people were drunk, full of food, sleepy, disoriented. They couldn't dodge the bullets even if they tried. But the guns weren't enough. He wasn't killing enough. People were starting to run up the stairs. Rathil swiveled and fired at them, but the ammo ran out after a couple shots. So he picked up the shotgun and fired. Multiple shots blasted out of it, killing multiple people at once as they sprayed outward from the double barrel. Interesting. And helpful.

He cocked and fired again, taking down more people. As corpses collapsed on the stairs, other people running up tripped over them and tumbled down or off the staircase. Rathil kept firing the shotgun until it ran out too, feeling a sense of satisfaction at how much damage this one was doing. Then he tossed the gun aside, pulling one of the glass daggers out. Then a few barrels on one table caught his eye. Wine barrels. If he could light those...but his ammo was out. Storm it, he'd already used up all of it. People were still charging up the stairs. He'd only barely killed two dozen of them.

Wait. Those candles. He didn't know what they did, but there was wine pooling around those barrels. It was a long shot, but he needed to cause a bit more chaos. Rathil threw the dagger into the face of one of the people clambering up the large staircase, grateful there weren't two staircases out of this room, then pulled one of the candles out of his pocket. There were torches on the wall behind him. He ran to one and lit the candle on it. Worth a shot. Those people were near the top of the stairs.

As the candle lit, its wick began to spark and fizz. Unusual...whatever that meant, at least it wouldn't go out now. Rathil ran to the edge and chucked it into the fray below, where it landed...on the floor next to the wine barrels. _Oh, well_, he thought, pulling out a pair of obsidian knives. _It was a long shot anyw - _

BOOM. The candle exploded, blowing out debris and flame around it, igniting the barrels and causing them to explode too. People below were thrown back and those on the stairs stopped in shock. Throughout all of that, wood chips and splinters shot out everywhere, piercing all people near them. That detonation was twice the size he'd expected it to be. All that...from a candle? _This world's changed_, thought Rathil. _And maybe for the better, if it means candles explode now. Better for me, at least. _

But there were people at the top of the steps now. Rathil raised his knives and let loose, attacking with a flurry of cuts, jabs, swings, twists, and stabs. These people never knew what hit them. He sliced through their ranks as they came to him, easily dodging any attack that any one of them pressed out of intuition and stabbing at where he knew they would move rather than aiming for them. They may have had fighting experience, but they'd never dealt with a master of the knife like Rathil before.

It was time for some _real _killing now.

Rathil noticed that it wasn't just men attacking him. There were women among the aggressors too. And not all of the people were younger. Some looked like they might have been teenagers, others looked almost too old to be walking. And their races...he could see some Scadrian-looking ones like him, though they'd be regarded as Shin on Roshar, along with people with Alethi-tan skin and eyes and some dark-skinned people who might have been Makabaki or Terris. Some of them didn't look like any race he'd seen on Roshar, Scadrial, or Threnody, though he couldn't really describe it in detail. Something about their eyes, maybe their height as well. Whatever the case, he realized something as he dodged, parried, swiped, and stabbed: the reach of this Inquisition extended farther than he'd thought. It covered the whole storming cosmere. There could be more out there. Destroying them here wouldn't be enough.

Suddenly, Rathil was feeling a lot more motivated to stay alive, and he attacked with renewed vigor, bellowing in fury as body after body collapsed around him. He rammed one knife into a man's sternum, slashed the other one through a woman's throat, then yanked out of the man's stomach to bury it in another man's eye. But more people were coming.

_I may not be able to take them all on_, Rathil thought to himself, a few minutes too belatedly. He should have brought backup or something. He made sure to step away from the edge of the top of the stairs so someone couldn't push him off the side onto a table below. Then he saw someone sailing through the air up to the balcony. Storms. Coinshot? No, they looked like they were moving straight toward...the rung on the wall where the torch he'd lit the candle with was. Lurcher. Aw, storms.

He swiveled around to throw one of his knives into the person's chest. The Lurcher saw it and sped towards the wall, probably trying to get out of the reach of it, but the knife still got him in the stomach. That had happened in a matter of a couple seconds. A couple of seconds he had his back turned. Rathil quickly ducked, and sure enough, a man who was lunging forward tumbled right over him of the edge of the platform. Another man rushed him, but Rathil was already expecting the attack, slashing the knife through -

Nothing. With a sudden shocking speed, the man dodged to the side, punched Rathil in the face before he had time to react, and plowed headfirst into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Feruchemist. Rathil would have considered himself good as dead had Phoenix not told him about Ferrings some days ago. Apparently, since the event called the Ascension, Feruchemy had dwindled down until people born with it only had one attribute rather than all of them. Luckily for him. Unless this guy was too fast to kill.

Rathil and the speedy Feruchemist, whatever those were called, rolled around on the ground, grabbing at each other's throats and punching at one another's faces. Rathil couldn't block any of them, because even if he knew where the punches were coming from, he couldn't dodge. He got fist after fist in the face, growling in pain and rage. His nose was broken and his mouth was bleeding, and people were crowding around them, watching for the outcome.

He barely managed to finally shove the guy off of him and reach for the knife he dropped, but the man quickly swiped it off the ground and held it up, ready to slash at Rathil with it. In response, Rathil pulled out another glass knife and stood in the familiar stance he'd been using for the past three hundred years of his life. This man may have been fast, but Rathil was a master of knife usage. Now they were in his territory.

The man tried surging forward, predictably, so Rathil had already swiped downward, cutting deep through the man's wrist. As the man cried out in pain and slowed down for a split second, Rathil took advantage and brought the knife back up, driving it into his neck. The man leapt back quickly, keeping the blade from running him through, but it was too late. His neck was punctured and he fell back with widened eyes, clutching at his bleeding throat.

Rathil breathed heavily for a second, reaching for his pocket to tap that gold medallion, then noticed the people surrounding him on all sides, looks of rage on their faces. _Right. There're more. _Rathil sighed and raised the dagger as they ran forward. Healing would have to come later. He swung around in a wide arc to cut whoever came closest, then spun around and sliced in the other direction. He didn't care where he cut, so long as he cut. He hated being surrounded.

He couldn't keep this up. He needed to get out of here. He still had his pair of emergency spheres in one pocket, but they were only marks and close to dun. They couldn't provide him with much energy; he'd save them for when he needed to run. That Stormlight always gave a burst of energy along with its healing power. For now, he needed to get out of this fray. So he pulled out another knife and slashed away, cutting down person after person.

They just kept coming. And he just kept killing.

**Ene:** I stood, mouth open, as Phoenix dropped his speed bubble and launched into motion. It wasn't long before the guards at the door had been decimated.

I shook off my shock and ran over to one, searching until I recovered keys. _Yes!_ Trotting to the nearest cell door, nervously listening to the screams radiating from elsewhere in the fortress, I started fitting the keys in the lock. Not that one...not that one...there. With a click, the door gave no resistance as I shoved it open.

Inside stood a black-haired man, tensed to fight. I felt my heart twinge. Who knew what these people had been through, and yet there was at least one who hadn't broken. "Out," I called to him, waving my hands at the Surgefinders in the hallway. "You're free now. Help us fight or let us protect you, either works."

I was unsurprised when a dark, almost regretful grin split his face. "I'll be fighting." He strode to my side, next to Dog, looking faintly unwell but otherwise nourished and mostly unhurt. "The name is Remembrance, of Threnody." His gaze landed on the ring of keys I held before skipping to the line of doors continuing in the distance.

I nodded before leaving him to join the others and moving on myself. As I went through the keys, matching them one by one to the lock, a particularly piercing screech cut into me. It must be one of our group, attacking the enemy, which was _right_. It was. They were evil, and wrong, and immoral...but...were we any different? I wanted to say I was, but I couldn't be certain. Not to mention Phoenix and Rathil, Cole - who'd apparently gone crazy, from what Phoenix had reported - and even Sam. The Surgefinders, too. You didn't get scars like Ryker's from a peaceful life.

The next door contained a woman; she didn't look as well off as the Threnodite. Bruises splashed across her face and curved down her throat. When I reached out to her, she shuddered away; when I drew closer, Rioting her sense of trust, she subsided. And I saw it. Her stomach was slightly distended. It could mean she had been pregnant when they brought her here. It could mean she hadn't been. Either way...an involuntary hiss escaped me.

The Inquisition _was_ evil. But that _still_ didn't dispel the question. Were we any better? Just because they committed such acts didn't mean we had to react the same way. That just made the issue worse. Clenching my teeth, I ushered the woman out and over to the rest of us. I shot Quell a pleading glance and hoped he'd know I wanted him to keep her spirits up. I needed to keep my metals for an emergency.

Heading for the next door, I wrestled with the lock for some time before pushing it open to reveal emptiness. On to the next one, where a Terris-looking teenager waited fearfully. I pointed him in the direction of the others silently. As he walked out, I noticed that one arm dangled, broken. Nobody had bothered to give it any proper medical care.

My fury mounted as I unlocked door after door, freeing prisoners one by one. Many were injured. A few appeared mentally unsound. Wordlessly, I showed them all where to go, watching them huddle together. Some moved slowly, like they couldn't believe I was letting them go. Others practically dashed through the doorway, fleeing to relative safety. Only one or two more agreed to join our battle.

I reached a cell ten or so from where I'd begun, and inside was a child. Twelve at most, she sat curled up in the corner of her little space, shivering. Remembrance, who'd been watching over my shoulder, made a noise somewhere between relief and misery. "_Valor_." He ran in the cell, not even flinching at the semblance of captivity, bent, and wrapped his arms around the girl. She shut her eyes and hugged back.

I watched their embrace, one of joy and love and sorrow combined, father and daughter, and felt a spark of what-if. What if Jathlet and I had been like that? I shied away from wondering, though. Not only was I not interested in bringing up my past, but this _really_ wasn't the time.

**Ink:** We're at Tesh's cell, in the heart of the Inquisition. Getting out will be tough, especially if Tesh and others are too weak from being in the cell too long. Diona glances at me. From what I can tell, she thinks Rioting would be best for all of these prisoners. I burn some zinc, doing a wide aura of confidence with some hope mixed in.

"This is it," I say, turning to face the former prisoners and our group. "The Inquisition has terrorized this universe far too long. They have committed atrocities to our friends, family, people and planets. You are no longer captive, waiting for some horrible fate that awaited you. You are free. If you would like to join us in fighting, you are more than welcome to. However, I know many of you aren't fighters, are too weak to fight, or have families to take care of." I choke a bit at that last part, but move on, hoping no one notices. "That's all right too. We will make sure we can save as many of you as we can! We will protect this land, this planet, this universe, because WE ARE THE KNIGHTS OF THE COSMERE!" I punctuate that last phrase with a large dose of determination, Soothing their fears and anxieties. We'll win. We have to believe so.

I turn to the rest of the Surgefinders. "Let's blow this monstrosity off the face of Scadrial."

**Fire:** This was wrong. This was wrong. This was _all going wrong_. Detrare threw off his black obligator robe to make it easier to run, exposing his bare, spike-filled chest. He needed to send some people out into the Physical Realm now, before any of those Knights could get to them. He needed to send someone to relay the message to Cole so he could find and deal with those other Knights. And if push came to shove...he'd need to put the first contingency plan into place. He hoped he wouldn't have to, but it was vital to the spreading of the Fulfillment across other worlds that it be done. At the very least, he'd order his Exemplars to their respective worlds to begin the Fulfillment there.

Who to speak to first? Bloodbath. He held up the gemstone and spoke into Bloodbath's soul. "My child, this is urgent. Find Lenali and gather a group of worthy members of our Fulfillment, then go to the Physical Realm. Lay waste to the city of Elendel now. _Immediately_. Make me proud and Ruin it completely. The Fulfillment begins _now_."

Then he spoke through the gem to Eheron's soul. "My son, our timetable must be accelerated with a few alterations to the plan. Leave for Sel, taking only what you need with you, and begin the Fulfillment there. It is vital that you get there and begin it. You know what we have planned for Sel, what _you _have planned for it. Go and do, son. I believe in you. Let Devotion, Passion, and Ruin be Fulfilled on your world."

Then he focused his attention on Kalazeras, his voice probably just a whisper in the breeze from so great a distance as he was. But once the Exemplar of Passion received even the faintest inkling that the Fulfillment was to begin, he would commence with it right away. The poor boy had been waiting impatiently enough as it was, bursting with Passion the way he always was. Detrare spoke firmly, focusing his attention entirely on Kala for a moment. "Kalazeras, my Exemplar of Passion, listen to me now. The Fulfillment begins!"

That would have to be enough for the other worlds for now. Unless he really did go with that contingency. Who else? How about Samar? He could spare a moment for her. "Welcome home," he whispered to her soul. That was all he needed to say. Hopefully, she would be dead soon anyway. Who else needed to be immediately dealt with?

Ah, yes. He still needed to deal with Cole, who was in a Ruinous frenzy even without direct influence from the Splinter anymore. He could sense people's lives were winking out by the dozens, his Connection to them cutting off abruptly. Worse, it was coming from multiple areas of the fortress. They were somehow _losing_, caught unprepared as they were. How _had _that happened? This fortress had warning fabrials in place all over it! Even if they had used the Surge of Transportation in here, they would have triggered alarms! Something unseen was interfering with them, but for now, all he could deal with was what they _could _see.

"Sanrin!" he yelled into the gem, looking for someone to relay the message to Cole. "I need you to -" But he couldn't sense him. He'd lost his Connection to Sanrin. The Skybreaker was dead. _****ation_, Detrare thought, growling in frustration. Who else?

Then a thought occurred to him. Would Cole even go so far as to kill an innocent looking old lady pleading for her life? An old woman Detrare trusted was Devoted enough to go willingly toward near-certain death? Would that cause Cole to come to his senses, so to speak? "Tomain," he said quickly, speaking to the soul of that elderly woman who had accompanied him on his visit to Teshani. "I need you to relay a message for me immediately."

**Tesh:** A sharp pain flashes through my neck, and I instinctively try to suck in Stormlight. Nothing. But I can feel something else…

My eyes snap open, and I see Phoenix standing in front of me. Tears spring to my eyes. The door is open, with others standing beyond it. I grab the medallion Phoenix is holding, lunge forward, and wrap him in an embrace.

"Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank the Almighty." I pull back and glance at Ani. She seems to be doing a little better. "Are you ready?" I ask her.

"Yes."

"Let's go."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix leans in to see if there is any stirring at all from Tesh. They had hopes that a physical reaction would soon be sparked, maybe enough for her body to instinctively sense and began taking in the health stored in the gold medallion he had given her earlier. Suddenly, as Phoenix is studying her eyes for any REM movement, they pop open and look straight at him.

Phoenix stands back in shock, but inwardly is relieved that the medallion has done its work. She scans the room, then lunges at Phoenix with an embrace he's entirely unprepared for. After a moment, Phoenix relaxes and moves to briefly put his arms around her in return, albeit awkwardly.

"Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank the Almighty," Tesh says. After a moment, she pulls back from Phoenix and turns to study her spren. The honorspren _does_ look slightly better, likely an effect of the gold, which addresses Spiritual as well as Physical wounds. Tesh speaks to her spren for a moment and then makes a gesture as if she is about to summon her as a Blade. A look of confusion crosses Tesh's face when nothing happens.

Phoenix speaks up. "We're in the Cognitive Realm. Only physical weapons will do any good here, although your other abilities should still work." He looks around at everyone who gathered around to witness Tesh's coming to. "Everyone here should gather as many weapons as they can comfortably carry. They are in a pile right outside this door; we can thank Rathil for that..." Phoenix pauses, looking around for Rathil. "...speaking of whom, did anyone see where Rathil went?"

Phoenix steps out the cell door and calls down the hallway, "Rathil!" with no response. He briefly thought back to the moment where he had recently sensed two battles rather than one. He didn't remember noticing the man at that point either. "Everyone, if you want to join the fight, go down this corridor, make a left and head up the flight of stairs you find there. Go up until the stairway ends and exit the door. You will be on a balcony overlooking a courtyard. If there is fighting to be had, there is probably plenty to be found there. I need to go rescue a friend who's likely way in over his head. I'll join you when I can."

At that, Phoenix Elsecalls to the location of fighting he heard that isn't near the location he left Cole. _Hopefully this is where that reckless man is, and he is still alive, _Phoenix thought before appearing in the middle of the courtyard to find an angry mob focused on someone inside of their ranks. Phoenix used nicrosil to enhance his compounding of speed, and, flaring pewter, he circled the group and proceeded to crack each of their spinal cords at the neck until they collapsed. It was so effortless he was surprised that it was even flesh he was manipulating.

Phoenix released his metals. Rathil, still enraged, continued slicing at the bodies even as they collapsed around him. Phoenix turned around, noting the shock of others close by as they turned and ran, most likely to gather reinforcements. Apparently they had sent their better fighters to face Cole instead, fortunately for Rathil. Phoenix turned back to the man, who was just coming to his senses. He was foolish, but it _was_ impressive that he had lasted down here as long as he did. Phoenix nodded in approval. "Well? Are you done resting? There are still plenty more to go!"

**Ene:** I shifted uncertainly near the back of the group, having unlocked every door I could find. Teshani Kholin, called Tesh by her friends whenever they spoke about her, was being rescued - and she didn't even know half the people doing it. Should I step forward? Better to let someone she knew do it, I decided, and stayed put.

**Fire:** Rathil swiveled around him. Everyone was dead. Phoenix was there too. He'd helped Rathil and killed them. This was supposed to be _his _time to fight! "I had it taken care of!" he shouted at Phoenix. "Mind your own business!"

**Sami:** "Samir!" A harsh voice cut through the silence, disturbing the thick dust settled in the air. The woman strode through the doorway and a weak beam of light from the small window illuminated the small girl crouched in the corner. She promptly made for the girl's ear and hauled her to her feet.

"Afraid?" she sneered, holding the girl tightly. "The money from last week. Fetch it now." Her voice was too loud; the minuscule shake of the grip that held her and the slight slur in her words gave away the intoxicated state of the woman.

"Mother," the little girl whispered, "we have none. You used -"

A cutting slap across the face shut her up. The woman shoved her face closer. Her breath came out in a hiss of bad alcohol and one who had smoked too much. "Listen, you little bloody good-for-nothing. I've worked myself hard just to ensure this deal goes through, but your father needs money again. Darril is at the end of his tether and his hand is over the handle of his whip right now. If there's no money, he's ready to beat up your father and I until we're nothing more than pulp in a ditch. So you don't provide enough money, you're out of the house and on the streets. Understand?"

There was nothing more to be said. The woman let go of the girl and turned away. She didn't bother to see if the girl went or not. Samir always did.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix shrugs his shoulders. "Don't need the help? Fine. That next group won't be so easy though." He gestures to the much larger crowd headed their direction. He can definitely sense a much higher level of Investiture amongst this group. "At least take these." He tosses two gold medallions at the floor in front of Rathil. "Do try not to get yourself killed; your skills are clearly an asset to the bigger picture here. See you in a while."

Phoenix Elsecalled away. He had his own agenda now anyway. He knew the Inquisition had an Elsecaller of their own, and he intended to find and eliminate that person. At least that way any escape for Detrare wouldn't be so easy.

**Fire:** "Thanks," Rathil grumbled to empty air, tapping the gold medallion in his pocket to fix his face up a bit. Then he shoved the next two in his pocket and readied himself as the next crowd of maniacs surged his way. Unfortunately for them, he was a maniac too. With the advantage of intuition, healing…he pulled out another pair of obsidian knives...and weaponry. He wasn't going down without a fight. Though he begrudgingly admitted Phoenix had helped him out a bit. Or a lot. Whatever. As the crowd surged forward, so did he, daggers blazing as he bellowed out a battle cry.

**Tesh:** As I run out of the door, I see the pile of weapons Phoenix mentioned. I let out a small yelp as I see the sword Jay gave me what seems like so long ago. I grab it, along with the sheath and belt. I buckle it on, then tuck two obsidian knives into it as well. I shove the medallion I grabbed from Phoenix into my pocket and sprint to catch up with the others.

"Does anyone have any Stormlight?" I ask, falling into step beside an older teen. She glances over at me when I speak.

**Ink:** Tesh looked younger than I expected. "I don't, no. But I do know a way out," I say, pointing. I turn to the rest of the prisoners. "All right, those of you who want to fight, stay in the front and back of the group. Protect those who won't fight. Follow us out of this rust bucket!" I start to run toward where the exit of the Inquisition is. At least, where I hope it is. I keep fueling their courage, hope and determination.

**Ene:** Now armed, Tesh started moving away from the door after the main group. "Does anyone have any Stormlight?"

"I don't, no, but I do know a way out," Quell announced. He then took off, the others running behind, Rioting their hope and bravery. _Our_ hope and bravery - I felt it too. Or were those just my own natural emotions?

Either way, I joined them, dashing along, Dog galloping beside me. "I don't have any either," I told Tesh ruefully. "I'm not a Surgebinder. Just Twinborn."

**Mist:** Quell began to lead the main group toward a door, and Dawn started to follow them. Suddenly he froze, ears catching on a faint noise. Footsteps, and they were coming from the opposite direction the group was headed. If they were being flanked...well, if this escape was going to succeed, that couldn't happen. Dawn called toward the group quietly, so as not to alert any prying ears that he had heard the footsteps.

The group was already bustling away and hadn't heard him. If he ran over to them now, he might be surprised with the rest of the group. If he used his steel, he could find himself needing that speed later. The footsteps grew steadily louder and began to speed up. _If I stand here deciding all day, I'll find myself at the business end of a knife. _

Dawn shot one last look back at the exiting group, then crossed to a door on the opposite side of the room at a run, rolling on his soft hunting shoes to stay quiet. He slipped the door open, then slid inside, entering a long stone room. Braziers lined the walls at regular intervals, illuminating six tapestries - three matching ones hung on each wall - in between the braziers.

A pair of tapestries depicted a spike driving through a stylized human wearing a silver mask; the spike plunged through the man's chest and into a large swath of darkness. Another set depicted the same silver masked man, with devotaries praying at his feet. The third showed the masked man, standing before a field of blood red, masked eyes alight with crimson and arms outstretched. The corners of this mask's mouth were twisted into a ghastly grin.

_Ruin, Devotion, and Odium,_ Dawn realized. _Or rather, Passion. _He was so entranced by the tapestries, he didn't even notice that the footsteps had stopped echoing through the room. Indeed, at the far end of the room, illuminated by flickering firelight, stood a cloaked man. A cloaked man with spikes for eyes.

_Inquisitor. _

**Fire:** Bloodbath breathed in his first whiff of fresh, clean air in the physical world in a long time. He'd spent so long in the cognitive one, where everything was made of mist and wouldn't be destroyed so easily. Now he could really Ruin everything around him. He breathed in again, hating how clean the air smelled. He missed that sweet aroma of blood and smoke he'd grown so familiar with. He wished he could see the beautiful sight of everything burning and dying. He wished he could have seen this place in the days of ash. Instead, he was forced to see a dreary, simple, lush landscape where everything always stayed the same. Horrible. This whole place needed more death. He'd start with all the people on this world. It was time they knew Bloodbath. Time he proved worthy of that name.

Because he was going to paint the whole world red with the gushing blood of everyone on it, right before it all burned up in the flames of Ruin. This was his purpose. This was why he was born. To ****ation with the one they called Ironeyes. Bloodbath was taking his place now, especially once he actually killed the old recluse. Because _he_ was death. _He_ was pain. _He_ was punishment. _He was Ruin_. He was going to do more destruction for the Fulfillment that any other, even his own father, even the other Inquisitors. And he was going to do it now. It was about time he ripped apart some real people again. He was still feeling a little hungry anyway.

He looked around him, seeing the group of armed men and women ready to charge. Ready to _Ruin_. Then he noticed Lenali wasn't with them. Whatever. He would just make up for whatever Ruining she caused tenfold. They were going to take that city by storm...and crush everything in it to pretty little bloody chunks and rubble. What a sight to see that would be. From him as he did all of it, and from those Harmony-worshipping little meatsacks as they saw this red-painted, blood-soaked Inquisitor of legend falling out of the sky in robes of red and black, swinging three brutal weapons around him at once.

Those weak excuses for people would know what God's will made manifest looked like. Bloodbath giggled with excitement at the thought of all that slaughter and burning. Then, dropping a coin on the ground, he raised himself into the air, never looking away from the direction of Elendel. And none of those Knights could come to stop him.

"RUIN!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, Pushing another coin on the ground behind him to surge forward in a grand arc over his group of brethren. They yelled, cheered, and charged. He Pulled the coins back toward himself, then Pushed them into the ground behind him, right in front of where the other acolytes were. They made sure to steer clear. Smart. And stupid. Smart so they wouldn't get killed by him. Stupid because he couldn't kill them too, along with everything else. He was supposed to destroy everything. He _wanted_ to destroy everything. Weren't they part of that everything? But he was loyal to his father. He would obey him. He wouldn't kill his comrades...not too many of them. He giggled to himself as he thought of all the killing. As he reached the top of his arc, he Pulled the coins back to him -

But they weren't there. From behind, he heard the sudden sound of men crying out in pain. A beautiful sound, but confusing. As he tried turning in the air to see what was happening, he ducked as a large metal hook shot past his head. _What the_ \- He tried Pushing it away, but it was attached to a chain and held firm. What was going on? Then it jerked backward, catching him in the shoulder and digging into his skin. Bloodbath cried out in rage. Not pain, pain was good. He _loved_ feeling pain. But whatever was doing this to him was messing with the Fulfillment, which _could not happen_.

Bloodbath was yanked to the ground with a crash, the hook ripping out of his shoulder and going back where it came from. Bloodbath instinctively healed the wound and burned pewter, swiveling around to see what had done that. He saw a man in a black suit with a mask covering his face. Bloodbath thought he recognized him. Then remembrance struck him like a mace to a skull. But how...? Why? Bloodbath ignored those thoughts and just grinned. His first thought was to slaughter this person. Maybe he would be allowed to kill another comrade in the Fulfillment today. Especially if one such as this one had lost his way.

Bloodbath screamed and surged forward, twirling a mace and a short sword at both ends of a barbed chain. Death. Destruction. Slaughter. Pain. Carnage. Passion. Ruin.

Who am I? What is my purpose? Does that matter anymore? Would anyone care?

No. No one. I have no one to care about me. Only the one who dragged me out of death to make penance for my sins ever gave me a second chance. Only he even bothered to try caring. I didn't even get that second chance from the person who killed me. The one who promised me a first one. But can I blame her for what she did to me? No. She was saving lives. Saving them from me.

Why couldn't she, or anyone, save me from myself? I was just left to my own devices, told to complete Project Archangel. A mission that turned out to be a lie. As far as I could remember, everything I thought I knew was a lie. I thought I would take that knowledge to my grave. But then Harmony had forbade the grave, pulling me from that painful respite back into the cold, harsh reality of a world that was even more painful. But he had done so with a reason. And now, with help from him, I know what I can do to right my wrongs.

I will keep others from doing damage such as what I have wrought. And those others are the ones who turned me into this in the first place. The ones who told me about Project Archangel in the first place. The ones Bryce served. He was the one who made me into this monster physically, but he was only a pawn in all of it. Then who - or what - has made me such a monster on the inside? Is it also those I now fight?

It seems that is why Harmony brought me back. Because He needed someone to do something that for some reason he _couldn't_ do. He needed someone to fight against this monstrosity that made me what I am now. Because of that order from Harmony, I have finally found purpose again. I've been seeking it for the past few weeks, wandering across worlds and wondering what to do, before finally being brought back here where I started. It all started for me here. Maybe being Harmony's pawn is all that's left for me. Maybe it will end here. I don't know if I'll survive. The Inquisitor in front of me who I just pulled to the ground looks just as powerful as I am, maybe more. And that's even when considering the unhealthy amounts of pewter powder that I consumed a few hours ago when Harmony told me to come here.

As the Inquisitor screams and charges, I quietly run forward, swinging that familiar, heavy hook that has been with me for so much time. I don't scream as I begin to clash against him. I can't scream. I am only a Speaker of Silence. Project Archangel ordered me to destroy those with power. This deranged thing before me, more like me than anything else, is one who holds power. In a way, I am still following these people's orders.

What is my purpose? To right my wrongs once and for all. Who am I? For now, and possibly forevermore, I am Mask.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sat in a plush armchair, flipping through what appeared to be a journal he had found in a locked secret compartment in the back of one of Detrare's desk drawers. He smiled, thinking about how everyone had been so distracted by the fighting that he almost had complete liberty in the upper chambers of the fortress. He'd even found what appeared to be remarkably similar to, if not one of, the ancient Rosharan flawless gemstones. It burned so brightly with Stormlight that it nearly blinded Phoenix as he had removed it from the safe. He assumed it had belonged to their Elsecaller, as that individual's room was the only one with any sense of good taste out of all the offices he had inspected, especially when it came to refined reading materials and scholarly texts.

_So, what have you been up to, old friend?_ Phoenix thought, scanning through the entries in the journal he held. Surely filled with treachery, no doubt, although the diary wasn't likely to go back far enough to account his betrayal of Phoenix all those years ago. As he continued to read, he noticed a distinct shift in the tone at one point. Detrare had gone from one who wanted to use Hemalurgy for power to one who wanted to use Hemalurgy for destruction. But where was the man's motive for that? Phoenix thought back to that presence he had sensed earlier, which he could still faintly sense even now. Yes, it _did_ seem similar to Nergaoul in many ways. It was almost as if it was Rioting everyone under its influence to destroy. But Odium was trapped on Roshar; he shouldn't have any influence here. And the only other Shard whose Intent could _possibly_ align with this presence was Ruin.

That was impossible..._but_ it made the most sense at the same time. Could it be possible that there was a Splinter of Ruin that somehow escaped Harmony's reach? Was _that_ what had happened to his former pupil? Phoenix flipped back to the entry in the journal where he had noticed the most stark transition in tone and noticed that a page had been ripped out just prior to that entry. _So, what have we here, _Phoenix thought. _Had an encounter with a Splinter, did you? I bet you even thought you could control it. Idiot. _Phoenix closed the book and looked up.

A middle-aged woman was observing him calmly from the doorway. "Give it back," she demanded.

Phoenix shrugged. "I'm not sure what you're referring to. I am Phoenix, by the way, nice to meet your acquaintance." The woman was not yet holding any Investiture, but Phoenix remained on his guard.

"Lenali. You know exactly what I am referring to, and I don't have time for games. I've lost enough time already."

"Tell me, Lenali, why do you serve this cause? You seem like one who would be able to rise above such nonsense."

"Serve? I serve no one. And you understand nothing, for one who has supposedly lived so long. Yes, I know all about you, Phoenix, or should I say...Saodin." The woman smiled slyly at him.

Phoenix was slightly taken aback, but not overly surprised. "So you also know then that your master is quick to turn his back on his allies. He claims to serve one purpose one day and then proceeds with his own agenda the next. How can you trust such a man?"

"As I said, I serve no one. I willingly follow the cause because I believe in it and am Devoted to it. This cosmere is so old, _too_ old even. Old things get too comfortable with themselves and start to rot from the inside." Phoenix raised his eyebrow at that remark; Lenali twitched her mouth into a slight smile and continued.

"Sometimes, the only thing left to do is purge and start anew. Look at Roshar. It's only a matter of time before Rayse is completely free of his prison, and then where will he go? He will destroy any race, civilization, planet or even one of the Shards themselves if he thinks they pose any threat at all to him. That one, he wants to rule everything; he does have a certain Passion that is hard to resist, you do have to admit that. So what is humanity's only hope? To be purged, have the chance to start fresh, from the beginning. Rayse won't bother with a planet that has been all but destroyed. That is why I fight, to give humanity, even all the races, a chance at a new beginning. Don't you see, I fight to Ruin because that is the only hope this universe has!"

Phoenix stared at the woman in shock. "I thought you had been blindly led into this. But no, you are in this with wide eyes open! Can't you see? The Shards, with help from a few notable others, have held off Rayse for thousands of years! Even if he is freed, there's still hope! Destroying everything that has even a chance of standing up to Rayse only guarantees that he wins! Don't you see that?"

"Apparently, Saodin, you are the one who has been blinded by the false hope. I'm sorry I must now kill you. There are so few of us...I was hoping we might convince you to join our cause, especially with your knowledge of Hemalurgy. I had even planned a way for Detrare to gracefully welcome you back into the fold. He holds no hard feelings against you, well, Saodin. He did for a while, but now he sees that you simply have not been enlightened. For now, at least, I have not revealed to him that you are in fact Saodin. Nice redo of your face, by the way, you almost had me fooled too. Elantrian technology, I presume?"

"Actually, it is I that am sorry I must now kill you, much for the same reason that there are so few of us, and I cannot have you using your twisted logic to convert those precious few. Actually, I am sorry that I have already done so; you are actually much more intelligent than I gave you credit for. I just thought that if someone could be manipulated into following Detrare, or even a remnant of Ruin, for that matter...but never mind.

And no, you Soulcasting your blood won't save you. The chemical I put on your safe spreads through the skin, infecting every cell of the body, not just the blood. Even your gold medallions won't be fast enough to counteract its effects. You see, this compound is bioengineered to specifically resist most types of healing Investiture. At any rate, I need to go check in on my colleagues. May you find rest in the Beyond." Phoenix Elsecalls away as Lenali drops to the floor and begins to convulse from the effects of the poison.

**Sami:** Sam fell, instinct curling her legs to her chest and the impact knocking the wind out of her. She crouched, hands shaking, fingers curling against the stone. The dust began to clear and what she saw made her draw in a sharp breath. _No. _

The wall cracked a little more.

_"I head they're taking initiates - taking them for a good lot of money. Samir. They would take her. Think of it, Mattil, it could save us." _

"_You're to be an initiate - but you have no Allomancy, do you?" _

_"This one needs a spike or two." _

_"Get her in." _

_A hoarse voice, screaming. _

_"****ation, tie the girl tighter." _

_Blood dripping on her face, on the floor. A weird lumpy weight on top of her. Indescribable pain in her chest. Agony like nothing she'd ever experienced. _

_More screaming. This time, though, it's mine. _

**Fire:** Detrare was getting increasingly confused and distressed. Lenali had died. Had she gotten the others across first? Did any of those Knights know that Bloodbath and his companions had left? He hoped none of them would be able to stop them in time, at least. Because if those Knights of the Cosmere thought they could bring down the Fulfillment on Scadrial, then Detrare was going to make sure he took down as much of Scadrial with them as possible. This was one of the worlds they had planned on Ruining completely and totally. He wouldn't let a few meddlers intrude on these carefully laid plans. Especially if one of them was Cole.

And Phoenix. Detrare had underestimated that man's abilities, but now believed he was much more powerful than previously assumed. Nearly as powerful as Cole, perhaps. This was dangerous. He would have to be dealt with as well. But how? Detrare had nothing against him. Who? Lenali was dead, so he could no longer be countered by another Elsecaller. Sanrin was dead, all their Radiants were now dead, storm it! Bloodbath was going to Elendel. Tomain wouldn't stand a chance in a fight, and she was trying to talk to Cole. Maim was in the cellars, dealing with a few other of those Knights and their lackeys. Eheron...had hopefully already left for Sel. Detrare would probably have to deal with him on his own. And Samar; that little girl had gone wandering. She had come home. It was time to welcome her back into the fold.

Holding the gemstone close to his heart, he set off for the dungeons, ready to encounter Samar, then Phoenix, or even both at once. The plan was falling apart; he would salvage what he could and then Ruin what he could.

**Cole:** Cole stood in the middle of the carnage that he carried out. Blood covered him; especially on his hands. Bodies surrounded him, some of them recognizable as human. The rest were torn into bloody pieces of flesh and bone. Out of instinct he tried to open his left eye, forgetting that he'd pulled it out. Uncontrollable giggling wracked through him as he remembered the terror that had demonstrated when it fell to the ground.

The scent of blood soon drew Cole's next foe. A chilling screech cut through the silence of the dead. A creature unlike anything he had ever seen walked into view. It had the same basic frame of a bird, yet it towered over him. No feathers covered it, just rough skin. Even more unsettling was the sharp beak that looked like it had already claimed many a victim.

The creature moved faster then something of its size should, then closed its beak around Cole's left arm. _Attacking from my blind spot; a worthy predator indeed. _Most of his arm was ripped off in its death grip. The bird backpedaled, expecting the small morsel to die as all those previous had. Instead, the wound closed itself. Confused that the insect before it didn't die, the nightmaw screeched once more and began circling its prey.

_A challenge it is. Good. _Cole reached over and finally pulled his blade from its sheath. It hadn't tasted blood yet and it was _oh so hungry_.

The nightmaw finally decided that this was something to be wary of. Even if it didn't know why, it understood that it too could become the prey. The nightmaw instigated the fight, snapping its beak where Cole would have been if he hadn't flung himself to the side. Before he had a chance to counterattack, the nightmaw's front legs lashed out.

Cole barely raised his blade in time to catch the talons from ensnaring him. All the weight he passively tapped kept him from falling, but he was still pushed off balance long enough for the other claw to slash across his leg. Cole pushed the first set of claws back, then quickly lopped two talons off the second one. The nightmaw screeched once more before smacking Cole across the room. After he landed, he quickly healed the slashes in his leg. He didn't have enough gold to regenerate a whole limb, leaving him down an eye and a leg against the enraged nightmaw.

As it once more charged at Cole, his face contorted into a sadistic smile. Then he tossed his dark blade to the side and let the creature sink its talons into him. It wasted no time in beginning to devour him. The last sound that the apex predator ever heard was an uncontrollable cackle. Its neck snapped from the sudden influx of weight Cole tapped, killing it instantly.

He fell to the floor, healing the bare minimum required to keep him alive. He made a fearsome sight; bloodstained hand, severed arm that showed the jagged bone underneath, lacerations throughout his body, gouges from the razor-sharp teeth riddled his chest and legs, and a bloody pit that his eye once owned.

After retrieving his sword, a new presence approached. Confusion overwhelmed him when he saw an woman old enough to have grandchildren approach him.

**Tesh:** I woke up on the first morning and changed into a havah. I'd always hated dresses, but I couldn't avoid it at the moment. I met Mahshi in the hallway; we walked to the Sazin's room.

She bounced out of the door, grinning like a fool. She wore a long blue dress, not yet old enough for a havah. "That was the best sleep I've ever had!" She grinned a gap-toothed grin.

"Good," Mahshi said, then scooped her up in his arms, and we walked to the front doors.

"What do you say we walk around the warcamp for a while today?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"Yes, please!" Sazin said.

"It'd definitely be nice," Mahshi agreed.

Mahshi and I walk side by side as we look for a way out. Or for an Inquisitor.

"I am so sorry," I say. " I've now abandoned you twice. It's my fault Sazin is dead."

"No. That was years ago. We can't go back. Everything that's happened happened; we can't change that. And the second time, I abandoned you. It took far too long for me to get to you. And Sazin, she's now in the Spiritual Realm. She's everywhere, all around us. She's back where we all came from. And it's okay."

"I spoke to her a while back," I whisper. "In Shadesmar. She said the same thing."

Mahshi pulls me into a hug. "We're together now. We just need to find a way out of here. Get you back into the sun, maybe visit the Field of Rebirth. The Marewill flowers are beautiful there this time of year."

"But that's where it happened."

"I know." Pause. The inevitable. "Tesh, you need to tell the others what happened after that night."

"I know."

"Tesh."

"I know. I need to tell them my real name." Teshani Brinian. Not Kholin. A lie. My life is a lie. Mahshi, Teshani, and Sazin Brinian...and my older brother. Odd. I've almost forgotten about him.

**Fire:** Tomain hobbled toward the bloody Fullborn, feeling like she was going to have a heart attack. Of course she was loyal to the cause, but who wouldn't fear for their life in this situation? She was getting too old for this. She had to be Devoted to the cause, and to her master, she figured. That didn't mean she was going to enjoy this. Torturing spren was enjoyable. Telling one of the most dangerous people in the cosmere the most devastating news they could imagine was just terrifying. She hoped her innocent old lady look would keep her alive, which was probably why Detrare had sent her.

She stopped in front of the Fullborn, took a deep breath, and gulped. "I was ordered to deliver a message for you," she said, voice quavering. She needed to make sure he knew she was just the messenger. "If you ever want to see your children Corrin and Sazed again, you will stop fighting us and surrender now. We have them, and only our master knows where they are."

**Tesh:** _It's time. _It's been a year since I last said those words. When Mahshi and Sazin had both still been with with me. Time to face the next day.

I got up off my small pallet in one of the small caves out on the Shattered Plains. There'd been a highstorm that night, so I had been forced to spend the night out there. I straightened my blue Kholin uniform, tucked my knife into my belt, and went to unlatch the wooden wall that had protected me from the storm.

Another scout sat outside. I had spent the highstorm shift alone, but this scout, by the name of Rener, had volunteered to come and help to set up the watch post again. We set to work, hardly talking to each other. Finally he left, vaulting the chasms, heading back to his post.

I settled back into my usual positron, scanning the plains and contemplating my strange abilities and the man named Hoid who had promised to help me come to understand them.

**Cole:** Shock snapped Cole out of his bloodthirst. "My...my boys? You have my boys?" Fear, regret, and sorrow were all painfully apparent in his voice. Before she could say anything, Cole dropped his sword and fell on his knees. "I surrender! Don't hurt my boys, they don't deserve to go through this."

**Ink:** I kept leading the prisoners out. We were heading up, which felt right. An Inquisitor came running down the hall, and looked startled to see all of us; it seemed like she compounded pewter and became many times larger than normal. She ran toward us, and I quickly fired a few shots straight at her. It didn't even make her flinch, so I switched to my only Leecher bullet.

The Inquisitor kept charging, almost at us, and I shot the special round. It buried itself in her skull...one of the places where there was a lot of water in the human body. The Inquisitor's head and part of her torso exploded. There would be no healing; her compounding had been Leeched. Rusts, I wished I had more rounds like that. I'd never thought I would need more than one. I had a few other specialized rounds, but ettmetal was hard to come by.

We kept our pace, past the remains of the Inquisitor. I noticed a few horrified or sickened glances at the corpse. We came to a fork in the path. Which way would lead out? "Anyone know which way we should go?"

**Fire:** Tomain breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to let it show lest it anger the bloodied Fullborn. But she had no way of communicating this to Detrare. Her master had explained that one of Ruin's attributes included being able to speak into minds, but not hear them. Apparently, that extended to the Splinter. So even though she could hear his influence on her, he wouldn't be able to hear her. He would know if she died, so the fact that she was still alive would have to be explanation enough for Detrare. Now what? He'd surrendered, and more quickly than Tomain had expected. What was she supposed to do? Detrare hadn't told her that.

Trying to keep her voice level and not seem like she was coming up with her own answer, she said, "Since I don't know where they are, I can only tell you to leave the fortress and wait. You will not kill any more of our numbers, and you will not aid any of your companions, even if they are in danger. You will let all of them die as you wait outside, and our master might possibly tell you where they are and how to save them. But first, you must leave. You've done enough damage already."

Detrare was perusing through the souls of his companions as he walked along the corridor when he felt one of them wink out. And he knew this one, because it was an Inquisitor. One of his children. One of his _Exemplars_. No. Not Havoc. No, no, _no_, _no_, _NO_!

Detrare stopped in his tracks, stumbling. No...it couldn't be...he suddenly felt sick on the inside, not the kind of sickness he could easily heal away. Havoc hadn't been in the planning meeting because she'd been scouting around the fortress with Sanrin. With a stab of shame, Detrare realized he'd all but forgotten one of his own Exemplars. That neglect had cost the dear child her life. His family...these Knights of the Cosmere were killing his family. Detrare remembered how he'd reacted to Mask's death, and to Fist's. This wasn't supposed to happen. The number of Inquisitors they had remaining was dwindling. They didn't have enough spikes to make any more. They had been planning on getting them from slaughtering people in the wake of the Fulfillment.

But in that moment, Detrare forgot about the Fulfillment, forgot about all the chaos they were meant to cause, and could only think of Havoc. His dear daughter who had been so loyal, so bright and happy no matter what she was doing with that joyous Passion of hers. He could only think of how horrible he felt for letting the dear girl die. _I've been a neglectful parent_, he realized. He wanted to vomit. He was overcome with a sudden, Passionate hatred for himself, for letting this happen. Yes, Havoc was supposed to die, they all were! It was the point of the Fulfillment that once they had caused enough Ruin, they would finally be Ruined as well to let the cycle be complete! But that wasn't supposed to happen so soon. He couldn't let it happen so soon! The Fulfillment had barely even begun!

And then Detrare wondered: would his children dying at any point in the future be the right time? Or would it always be too soon for him? He shuddered as he realized he couldn't bear to lose them, even though the Fulfillment demanded it. He hadn't considered this because it hadn't happened to him until now, when the Fulfillment was nigh.

The problem with committing himself to the Intents of Passion and Devotion as well was that it gave him such a strong connection to the people he loved. Made him care so much about the people he knew with so much Devotion that he wouldn't be able to bear their deaths. Would he ever be able to face their inevitable deaths? Would he be able to carry out the Fulfillment?

These were not good thoughts to be having. He needed to focus on the present right now. And as he did, he realized his hate was twofold. He was still filled with that sickening hate for himself for neglecting Havoc and letting her die...but now he also felt a smoldering, Passionate _hatred _for the person who had killed her. Detrare didn't know who it was, but one thing was for sure: whoever had done that would be _dead before this night was over_. Detrare swore it.

But now, for something else. He was already on his way to deal with someone else. He wanted so desperately to lash out and kill everyone and everything, but that would have to come later. Now he needed to deal with the lost daughter. He walked down the rest of the corridor and into the Conventical room. The first thing he noticed was the enormous hole in the ceiling. Amazing. She had done that on her own? _Such potential she has for Ruin_, he thought to himself.

He held up the gemstone to let it illuminate the room and looked down upon the girl crouching in confusion in the center. He would contain his Passion just for now to speak to her, even though it boiled inside him, waiting for release. He forced himself to remain calm and not let the pain show, then loudly and proudly proclaimed, "Welcome home, Samar."

**Tesh:** Begging...coming from down the hallway. Mahshi and I burst into a run, Ani trailing behind us. We reach the door at the end of the passage and see Cole kneeling on the ground, sword by his side, begging.

"I surrender, don't hurt my boys, they don't deserve to go through this." As we dash through the door, Cole looks up at us. One of his eyes is missing; what happened? An older woman stands, glaring at us. It's just her and Cole. And the bodies.

"Back down," I say to the woman. "Or I will kill you."

**Ene:** Following Quell, I noticed Tesh and Mahshi break off of the main group and run down a side hallway. Should I follow them? They could probably take care of themselves...Dawn was gone too. When had _that_ happened? I felt a small jerk of worry, but brushed it away. They'd all be fine. The former prisoners were the ones I had to help now.

We didn't run into anyone for a few minutes after that. Dog ran beside me, and I looked down with a smile.

**Fire:** Tomain turned to the Radiant who had spoken to her, sneering. So _she _had escaped. "Have you learned nothing of our cause? We will _never _back down. The Fulfillment progresses as it will. I just chose to be on the right side of it." She looked over at the spren who had followed. "Oh, you. Did you enjoy your little respite? I'd be glad to continue where we left off."

Bloodbath raged. This was one of his brethren, fighting against the Fulfillment! Unacceptable! But at least it was one more person to rip to shreds. And a challenge. Bloodbath didn't like when bugs squished too easily. He always relished a bit of struggle to them before they _crunched_. Because then he could push himself harder. Let loose his Passion even further. When he was done, Bloodbath would sate himself on the blood of this enemy and move right on to the next enemy Inquisitor - Ironeyes. But first, that little detour of burning the city of Elendel to the ground and nothing less.

Bloodbath held a serrated short sword in one hand, bound by a chain to a spiked ball in the other. The other Inquisitor wasn't Pushing or Pulling on them yet, but Bloodbath wasn't Pushing or Pulling on his hook thing yet either. He wanted to have some fun first. They swung wildly at each other, weapons clashing. Bloodbath continued to scream as he bashed down at this masked traitor, but the other Inquisitor never made a sound in response; just kept dodging and blocking. Pathetic.

**Cole:** Cole stood up, grabbed his blade, and turned to Tesh. "You will not cause any harm to come to my kids." He then shifted in front of the elderly woman who might be a caring grandmother if it wasn't for the sadism in her eyes. He raised his blade to a stance that he'd learned in Nalthis. Although his blade was thicker than was optimal for this style of combat, the loss of his arm prevented him from using more suitable fighting styles.

**Tesh:** Ani and I glared at the woman. "Well, you won't," Ani said.

I glance down at my blood-soaked pants and remember the pain of that hammer against my knees. "Never again," I breathe. Testing the air, I suck in Stormlight from the woman's pocket. Finally. Let's begin.

I charge, and Mahshi isn't far behind, wielding a sword apparently found with the other weaponry before we left.

**Cole:** As Tesh's sword came down upon Tomain, Cole's dark blade shot up and deflected it. "The lives of my children may depend on this woman's life. You will not jeopardize that." Before Tesh could react Cole kicked her back, sending her flying. Someone who bore a remarkable resemblance to Tesh began to approach more cautiously.

"Back down, Tesh, you know you're no match for me, even without my arm and eye."

**Sami:** Sam's head snapped in the direction of the sound, body tensing, her eyes alighting on the man standing by the door. She jerked herself to a standing position. Her legs felt uncertain at the sudden movement, and she stumbled slightly to regain her balance.

"Who are you?" she said, projecting the usual confidence she was so good at giving. Her voice wavered slightly and she cursed herself inwardly. The last thing she needed was to show weakness in front of this man.

_Wait, home? _

**Fire:** Rathil slashed the throat of the man bearing down on him, causing blood to spray out of his neck. The man fell gurgling to the ground. Then Rathil bore that same knife deep into the eye socket of a woman swinging a pointed stone club while elbowing another man in the face directly beside him, crushing his nose and sending him toppling to the ground. Then he ducked beneath a man's swing, grabbed him by the arm, and twisted around behind him right as someone threw a dagger at Rathil's head. As the man's arm snapped, he also served as Rathil's human shield and took the dagger to the chest.

Rathil ducked away from another person lunging at him. Wait. Hadn't he stabbed her already? Indeed, she had an obvious stomach wound, but she seemed to be ignoring it. Pewterarm, apparently. She was moving at almost superhuman speed, ignoring his punches and swings. Two more people came at him from behind. Instinctively, he twisted to the left. A sword narrowly missed his abdomen and stabbed into that woman again. As Rathil ducked and swung behind him, he gutted the man who had been lunging at him with a spear.

That spear also pierced that pewter-enhanced woman, who glared at Rathil with wide eyes. She was trying to shrug off the numerous deadly wounds. Pewter could make people feel invincible that way. But as Rathil turned to the raging man with the sword and slashed his knife across the hand he was holding the sword with, the woman collapsed to her knees. Rathil promptly kicked her in the stomach to topple her to the ground. Then jabbed the knife into the swordsman's throat as the man dropped his blade. Then swiveled around and slammed the butt of the knife into the temple of the man he'd elbowed in the face. Then hurriedly threw the knife straight into the eye of the person raising a gun at him. _Close one, that was. _

Then he realized he only had one obsidian knife and one glass knife left, as well as the two remaining exploding candles and the aluminum-silver knife dagger in his pocket. That one was special. It was a last resort for when he had nothing else left. Not because it was more useful or dangerous than any other knife; it was just...special to him that way. His friend Requiem had made it for him years and years ago back on Threnody.

_Requiem_. With a jolt, Rathil finally realized why the weapons he'd seen looked so familiar. They had that distinct design to them he'd only ever seen in _that knife_. Did that mean...his old friend Requiem Carlton had joined the Inquisition? Was _that_ what had come of Rathil leading him off his miserable little life on Threnody? Rathil hesitated for just a moment as that horrible thought came to mind, but it was a moment's hesitation too long. Before he could dodge the blow that he should have known was coming, someone punched him in the face.

As he tried to recoil from that, someone else punched him in the gut. And before he could react to both of them, someone else stabbed him in the shoulder. And then he heard a loud bang almost exactly at the same time a piercing, excruciating pain flared through his stomach. It was too much to handle at once. He instinctively dropped his knife and pulled something out of his pocket, but someone swatted his hand away. He felt himself being shoved from side to side, punched and kicked all over. Then someone else stabbed him in the leg.

He heard a big, booming voice carry out over all of them as someone...gave commands? For a moment he wondered why he just hadn't been stabbed to death by everyone already, then realized he was about to die anyway. He maybe had a couple minutes left. A dark, quiet part of his mind whispered to him that this should have happened years ago. The last time he'd tried killing himself. How much blood was leaking out of him? How many times had he been cut or punched? Why was his vision so blurry?

_Oh, right. They haven't killed me already because they want to drag it out_, he thought through all the haze. _Smart_. _I suppose I deserve that_. He lifted his head and shook it, vision recovering from that blow to the head. His legs hurt. He'd been brought down to his knees. His arms hurt. Why did they hurt? He looked to his right and saw someone yanking his arm out straight, holding it in place. Someone else was doing it to his left, he saw. It was as if they were preparing to rip his arms out. They'd finally pinned him. Someone else next to him punched him right in the gut, and Rathil coughed out blood.

"Not yet," that booming voice said. For being so big and deep, that voice also sounded...calm. In front of him, he saw a large, bald, dark-skinned man lifting an enormous broadsword with a serrated obsidian blade and a white marble hilt. That sword had to have been the size of a Shardblade, that man was at least seven feet tall, and every inch of him was bulging with rippling muscle that looked like it was about to tear through his skin. Another Feruchemist.

The man's expression simply looked bored as he effortlessly clutched the huge sword and lumbered forward. _Oh, great. My executioner, _Rathil thought wryly. This man was going to brutally cut him in half for everyone to see. He must have been a leader or something, or else someone else would have taken the pleasure already. _So, this is how I go out_, Rathil thought. _At least I took some of them down with me_. _I just wish I could have seen Scadrial first, as it should be_..._I just wish...I could have been the one to end myself, not them. _It wasn't the best thought to have, but it was true.

He looked down to the ground, seeing what had been knocked out of his hand glittering up at him. The gold medallion. An inch away from his exposed, torn up knee. One last chance...Rathil simply closed his eyes. _What's the point in trying? I'd heal myself just to be cut in half. No point in wasting that power when someone else can use it. _

The huge man's footsteps echoed in his head as one last, excruciating thought ran through it. _I led Requiem to join this and make weapons for these monsters. What's the point of fighting them when I helped them in the first place? _His last mistake had been losing his old friend to this madness. No. No, that had happened long, long ago. His _real_ last mistake...was also his first ever mistake. Simply existing in the first place. He was nothing but a stain on the cosmere's canvas, worthless and bothersome to the universe. Maybe he _was_ finally doing some good.

By dying.

The large man raised his sword. Rathil didn't look up to meet his gaze. What was the point? It was time to make the cosmere a better place and stop existing. _God Beyond...forgive me. _

"I am the one who made you who you are today," Detrare said, smiling at her. He fought off all thoughts of the surrounding chaos and what was happening with his Inquisitor children. That would come after. First, he needed to deal with the issue of this long-lost runaway.

"I've been with you for most of your life, though you haven't known it. I've known your soul and spoken to it from the moment you had those spikes placed into you when you were just a little girl." He gestured to the room around him with his free hand. "I say "welcome home" because this is where you first came from. Do you not remember? Your negligent parents sold you to us through a slave-trading organization out of desperation for a bit of extra money, and we welcomed you into the fold. We always love having new members brought to us. But once you received your spikes, you ran away in fear, before we could instill a true sense of Devotion into you. Judging by your confusion, I estimate that you forced yourself to forget it and move on with your life. But I couldn't forget you.

If anything, I was pleased that you left. Because whether or not you consider yourself on our side, you have always unknowingly served our cause. You may have forgotten, but I have been with you ever since then. Speaking to your soul, pushing you to become the woman you are today." He thought for a moment, trying to remember a notable moment in her life he could point out while she stood there in thoughtful confusion. Then he beamed at her again. "Think of that time you killed the notorious gang leader. Yes, I know about that, and you know who I mean. Do you know why you did? Did you have any real reason for it? No. That's because someone else pushed you to do that. And that someone was me.

Throughout your life, you have wandered about, trying to find your way but bringing Ruin wherever you go. You have become the warrior I was slowly shaping you to be. The destroyer. I can't tell you how excited I was to find out you'd become a Radiant. And a Dustbringer, no less! So much potential for Ruin, that order has. When that happened, I knew I'd raised you right. Even though you never knew anyone was watching over you. It's so very difficult to tell when someone whispers to your soul. But I've been there for you." He paused, waiting for her reaction. Already, thoughts were seeding in his head about leading her to possibly replace Havoc as a new Inquisitor. Then they could be back up to at least four once again. But that was for another time. At the moment, he was focusing on now.

**Tesh:** Cole blocks my swing, then kicks me to the ground. The Stormlight I took from the woman upon my entrance is gone, and I'm left with a broken leg. "Storming pewter..." I mumble, pulling myself to the wall. Each movement causes a sharp pain to shoot up my leg.

Mahshi's walking toward Cole now, sword sheathed at his side. Stopping about six feet away, he says, "If you surrender now, you will be killed. And most likely your children too. They might force you to do it yourself. But if you keep fighting and don't let her leave this room, or contact anyone, there is a chance."

Listening to Mahshi's argument with half an ear, I pull out the medallion I grabbed from Phoenix, and hold it in my right hand. My bones begin to mend, and then, when they are nearly healed, the storage is gone. _Rust and Ruin! _ Fighting like this is going to be a nightmare.

**Mist:** Dawn's blood ran cold as he stared down the robed Inquisitor. Its face was cast in shadow except for two sparkling spikes, glimmering in the light of a brazier. For a moment, neither of them moved. Rwendeh shifted on his shoulder, clearly uncomfortable.

"Wait…" Dawn whispered in Eelakin, the language of his homeland. He slowly drew his knife from its leather sheath, careful not to let the six-inch blade catch the light. Taking a deep breath, Dawn called out. "What do you want?" he asked, speaking in the Terris language, a tongue his father had taught him. There was no way of knowing if the Inquisitor would understand, but it was the only Scadrian language he knew. In fact, Dawn wondered if the black-garbed figure would react at all.

He was proven wrong moments later when the man stepped into the light of the brazier, countenance split by a sickly grin. He raised an arm toward Dawn, holding something that shone in the firelight. "In death's throes may you find happiness," the Inquisitor called back at him, speaking in an unfamiliar tongue. He raised the object, as if in toast, then released it. The object flew toward Dawn as though from a sling, aimed for his heart.

Dawn tapped steel, catching the object - a small coin - and then stopped tapping. The Inquisitor inclined his head and smiled, then removed a bag from his belt. As he fumbled with the knot, Dawn yelled in Eelakin. "Now!" It was the signal, one he had used many times on hunts, and Rwendeh and Thene knew what to do. Rwendeh swooped left, circling towards the ceiling as Thene shot in towards the Inquisitor. Dawn tapped a little bit of steel and followed Thene, closing the gap. The Inquisitor had finally opened up the bag, and he pushed dozens of coins at the approaching Dawn and Thene.

Dawn took a deep breath, then tapped massive amounts of steel. He was a whirlwind, dancing between flying shrapnel as he tapped each one, knocking them off course into the ceiling and floor. Dawn twisted, leapt and soared, moving so quickly that the coins appeared to be standing still. He stopped tapping then, coming to a halt ten feet before the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor tapped steel in return. He became a blur, closing the gap to Dawn in an instant. Dawn tapped his own steel again, and the man seemed to slow to a more normal speed. In his hand was an obsidian axe, like the Inquisitors of old. Dawn parried his first swing with a dagger stroke, leapt over the man - forcing him to turn around - then sidestepped another sweeping axe.

His father's stories about Inquisitors came back to him. "_Remove the two eye spikes…" _Dawn spun, tapping a bit more steel and kicking aside the axe. As he spun, he saw something, diving through the air as though swimming through quicksand. "_Or the spike at the back of the neck. That's how you kill them. That's…" _

Dawn stopped tapping steel, knowing full well that the Inquisitor was swinging his obsidian axe at him. At that moment, Rwendeh unleashed a massive blast of fear onto the Inquisitor, who stopped tapping speed and staggered backward. Dawn was protected from the blast by Thene's shield, thankfully. "_...that's how Marsh did it, back before Sazed took up Harmony and we no longer had to worry about Inquisitors. It's…" _

Tapping speed, Dawn sprinted at the Inquisitor and reached for the spike at the base of the neck. The Inquisitor tapped speed, and his muscles began to swell. _Pewter_, Dawn realized. _He can tap that too - _the Inquisitor backhanded Dawn, sending him sailing across the room and into a stone wall. He hit with the crunch of breaking bones as his left arm snapped. "_...it's fortunately not a skill that you will ever have to use." _

Dawn had never been fortunate.

He grimaced, pulling himself to his feet, then checked his metal reserves and found them frighteningly low. He had stored up immense amounts of speed in preparation for this fight, but he found himself with only a third of his reserves remaining. Dawn wracked his brain. He needed a way to cut this encounter short, kill the Inquisitor quickly before he ran out of steel. Only one option came to him, and it was incredibly risky. Still, Dawn had made shots like that before. He was an expert, in fact, having once hit a charging nightmaw in the eye. He'd have to do it quickly and wouldn't have a lot of time to aim; if he alerted his enemy to his intentions or missed, things could go very poorly.

"Now!" Dawn shouted in Eelakin, and Rwendeh dove back toward the Inquisitor, sending a pulse of fear. Aiming and tapping, Dawn flung his knife, then watched the weapon fly toward the back of the Inquisitor's neck. Watched the Inquisitor, who had burned copper to block Rwendeh's blast, tap speed. Watched the Inquisitor push on the dagger, sending it flying back in Dawn's direction.

Watched the dagger twist through the air like a bolt of lightning. Watched the knife sink into Thene's chest. Watched the blood splatter across the ground.

Watched the last link to his father be severed.

Heard a scream tear from his lips, a ghastly mourning cry. Felt himself fall prone on the ground as the memories surged up, infernal tides crashing over him, tearing him apart, dragging him under, filling his lungs.

_The ground was smooth like polished stone, yet rough and sharp as the skin of a nightmaw. Facets of obsidian caught the half-light like striations in an iris, overlapping in faint chromatic shifts. It was the harmony of balancing on an edge, and the dissonance of leaning too far to either side. And it was the only thing Dawn could stare at without being dragged under by the sudden whirlwind of fear. _

_He knelt upon the obsidian ground beside his father and brother, feeling the cool touch of steel, crisp against his neck. He tensed every time the razor-thin edge jostled slightly in the hands of his captor. One beast stood before him, a hulking humanoid with marbled red, black, and white skin. She, as it appeared to be a she, had short hair, braided back to her shoulders, draped behind jutting carapace armor. Her marbled skin lent her a statuesque air, as though she had stood there for ages against the test of time. She stood before a pool of golden light, shimmering in the half-light like a beacon. _

_She spoke, voice undulating as though following an unheard rhythm. It was impossible to make out what she was saying, but she gestured towards the three humans, motioning for them to stand and then pointing towards the pool, resplendent against the obsidian backdrop._ _The cold steel withdrew from Dawn's neck, but he could almost feel it behind him, awaiting the chance to bite into his flesh, to swim through rivulets of blood as it danced through his mortal frame. _

_Rough hands grabbed his arm, pulling him upright and shoving him forward. Dawn stumbled, pretending he had been caught off balance, then twisted to grab his captor's spear. The creature raised the spear high into the air, Dawn still clinging to the haft, then brought it crashing down onto the faceted obsidian. Pain exploded across his body, bludgeoning him with a intense but dulled ache. _

_Faintly, Dawn felt the smooth, sharp, reassuring ground pull away from him. Hands clamped upon him like a vice, and the bite of steel was once again present upon his neck. Dawn found himself floating over the scintillatingly bright pool, juxtaposed against the darkness._ _He was flung into the pool, and he found himself faceup as he hit the surface, staring into cold, statuesque eyes. Eyes that contained an uncontrollable hatred, outshining the obsidian. Eyes that he would come to regret. _

_As the water closed over him, Dawn came upon a realization. The resplendence of the golden pool was only outshone by its odium. No: by its Odium. He bathed in a terrible light, an awful presence that wanted nothing more than to tear him apart._ _Dawn burst from the pool, leaping away from the fluid's grasp. _

_He found himself on an unfamiliar terrain, a world he did not recognize. He was not left with time to contemplate his surroundings, as his father and brother burst from the pool, followed by four glowing specters. They were incorporeal, glowing red with shining crimson eyes, yet were clearly their captors from the Cognitive Realm. The spirits, or perhaps more accurately spren, as his father had named them, drifted closer, eyes glinting malevolently. Dawn began to feel a presence, the same one he'd felt in the pool. It was gargantuan, a cosmic being that knew only uncooling hatred. The presence was omnipresent, encompassing the entire landscape. It permeated everything, pulsing outward from the pool like ripples on a pond. The spren drew closer still, and the three of them stood there, paralyzed in fear. _

_His father winked at Dawn and his brother, drawing a strange knife. It wasn't a blade he'd seen before, distinctive as it was. It was wickedly curved, and bore long, toothlike serrations. His father whipped around, slicing through the nearest of the spren._ _Dawn didn't expect anything to happen. The spren was incorporeal, a being mostly ensconced within the Cognitive Realm. Yet the blade sliced through the spren as though it had physical form. _

_His father looked back to Dawn and his brother, yelling "RUN!" in the Terris language. He sliced through another spren, but Dawn was hesitant to leave. He drew his own knife, slashing at a spren, but the blade passed through uselessly._ "_RUN!" his father yelled again, cutting at a third spren, but it sidestepped his blow, charging at his father. As Dawn watched, the spren began to _seep into _his father. _

_His father's Aviar, Thene, swooped down from the sky, tailed by Rwendeh. Thene dove at the spirit, and the spirit seemed to freeze in the process of merging into his father's body, frozen in transition. His father stood as rigid as Dawn himself, who was conversely petrified by fear. Rwendeh blasted fear at the creature, attracting a massive swarm of fearspren. The spren flew backwards, as though propelled by an invisible hand away from Rwendeh. Dawn snapped out of his shock, tapping steel and dashing to his father, snatching the curved blade from his hand and sprinting toward the fallen spren. _

_Dawn sliced through the spirit, watching it wink out of existence. He examined the blade for a second, impressed. It looked like steel, yet somehow different._ _He stopped tapping and turned around, facing his father. A scream tore at his ears, deep and pained. Before him stood his father with a hunting spear through his back. Holding the spear, eyes blazing crimson with hatred, stood his brother. _

_No. No. "NO!" Dawn screamed in Eelakin. Without thinking, Dawn dashed forward, lunging toward the demon possessing his brother, brandishing his father's knife. His brother - no, the spren possessing his brother - slapped the knife away. The spren stepped on the knife, and Dawn watched it shatter. He whipped out his own blade, a gift from his father, and stabbed the spren through the heart. The spren shot out of his brother's body as he was stabbed, and his face contorted into a look of anguished betrayal. _

_Something inside of Dawn broke, but he pushed it aside, buried it deep, focusing on the rage that consumed him. Flowed through him._ _The spren seeped into his father, setting his eyes alight with odium. Dawn lunged, and the cool steel of his knife punctured his father's skin, shattered his ribs, and plunged through his heart. This time, the spren did not flee. It also did not die. It rose from his father's bloody corpse, eyes tinted with a satisfied success. _

_Dawn shattered like an eggshell, pieces flying everywhere._ _Only then did he heed his father's advice and run. _

Dawn was a murderer, a failure, a disgrace, a criminal, an idiot, and a monster. Tears seeped from his eyes as he cursed himself for crying, curled up in a ball on the floor. Dawn did not deserve to shed tears. He was unworthy of the terrible flood inside, dragging him down, flooding his eyes with the darkness and salt. He was a coward, a weakling, and a fool. He didn't deserve to carry on his family name or even weep for his fallen kin.

After all, it was he who had borne the knife into their hearts, shattering the familial ties he had once held dear. He was a monster, even more so than the Inquisitor striding slowly in his direction. Had the Inquisitor killed their family in cold blood? A fresh wave of tears roiled up to the surface, and Dawn subsided into the wracking sobs, letting the flood pour out from his eyes. He deserved nothing less than the death walking nearer, chuckling softly.

How could he cry, Harmony, how could he cry? He, the murderer, overwhelmed by grief for the loss of his family, yet to only be able to curse his own name. To know, every waking moment, that the killer ran free, unbound by justice. Every passing instant from that day had been lived on borrowed time, one step ahead of accepting the events on Braize. Dancing before the storm, fleeing on the edge of a murder. Until finally, Dawn found himself sprawled at the feet of justice, who would come to terms with his fate long before he could truly articulate his hypocrisy, and meet that justice with sharp obsidian punctuality. Tears obscured the long shadow cast over him, darkness blotting out the wicked grin and raised axe. Dawn was a murderer, murderer, murderer. He deserved the coming death.

The axe began to fall, and Dawn's life flashed before his eyes. He saw his youth on First of the Sun, tinted by the knowledge that he would one day tear his family apart. He saw his journey into the Cognitive Realm with his father and brother. He saw their capture by the Fused. He saw...himself kill his brother...and his father. Dawn sobbed once again, emotion overtaking him. He saw himself failing Paileah. He saw himself fade into recluse and shambles, hiding from what was. And what had been. And furthermore, what could be. He saw himself open up to the Knights of the Cosmere, facing his past. Yet he saw it crush him, leaving him immobile, waking dead at the feet of Death himself, only waiting to accept his place in time.

All these failures, all these defeats, all these disgraces, all these monstrously horrible deeds, all these betrayals, all these murders. And yet, Dawn was here. He was in the heart of the enemy, staring up as fate fell toward him, and he had not fled. For all his failures, he had found a cause, he had stuck with it, and now he would die for it, not in spite of it. He would die trying to save people. That was how he wanted to be remembered. Not lying down, moping in his failure. Not as a murderer. As somebody who made a difference. Someone who made the sacrifices that put him here worth their while.

He thought to the Knights, who he lay before Death to protect, and he found that he didn't know their names, their faces. He didn't believe in their cause. But he would die to protect them, if he had to, if it meant making a difference. One name caught in his mind. Diona. A face...friendly, open. One of the few to accept him. The only still living. He would fight for her. He would die not to kill, but to protect.

The axe touched his chest, breaking the skin, preparing to crush through the bone. Dawn tapped steel. His hands shot up, catching the blade before it could slice through his chest.

_Lastclap. _

_And let this be a fine ultimatum, indeed. _

Dawn pushed toward the Inquisitor, using the blade for leverage. He slid out from under the axe and kicked off the ground, pivoting through the air with a warrior's grace. Releasing and twisting, Dawn angled his feet at the Inquisitor, kicking him in midair, sending him stumbling backward. He tossed his knife high into the air, flinging his arms around and his legs vertical, utilizing the momentum of the incredible speed at which he moved.

Pushing off of the Inquisitor's shoulders with his arms, Dawn completed a handspring to the ground, sticking the landing with a small cloud of dust. Holding out his hand, the twisting steel knife fell into his grasp, blade up, well-worn hilt slotting into calluses as though into a sheath. Dawn leapt forward, slashing at the Inquisitor as he turned, slicing a gash along his neck. The gash quickly healed, and the Inquisitor increased the speed of his steel tapping, battering Dawn with a flurry of hits.

Dawn may have been physically weaker, but he possessed a quality the Inquisitor simply lacked: precision. Dawn tapped in short bursts, conserving his steel. He flashed between parries in quick bursts, utilizing that time to anticipate and prepare for his enemy's next attack. He caught the axe blade once again on the cross guard of his knife, but this time he tapped more, pushing the axe away and stepping inside the Inquisitor's guard. Dawn reached up and plucked one of the Inquisitor's eye spikes, then reached for the other. He was knocked aside by a sweeping blow, but Dawn rolled to his feet.

"Weave!" he yelled in Eelakin, another command he and Rwendeh had practiced, drilling long days in the hot sun, preparing for hunts. Rwendeh swooped in to Dawn, who held onto one of her legs and spun around, building momentum. He released her towards the now charging Inquisitor, and she let out a shrieking war cry. He Pulled some of the scattered coins toward her, but Dawn was already in motion. He zigzagged across Rwendeh's straight path, intercepting coins and confusing the Inquisitor with bursts of speed. He leapt over a purple cremling, rolled across the ground and through the charging Inquisitor's legs, and plunged his knife into the Inquisitor's back.

Dawn reached up for the spike at the base of the Inquisitor's neck, but it was shielded by a metal cover. Rwendeh swooped away once again as Dawn retreated, thinking up a way to pull the other eye spike. "Gold," Dawn called out, once again speaking Eelakin. He walked forward, not tapping any steel at all, preparing himself. The Inquisitor began to swell in size, robe growing tight against him and undershirt ripping. Rwendeh circled above the Inquisitor, then dove down on top of him. He swatted her away like a pesky fly. Dawn suppressed a cry, only stepping closer to the Inquisitor. He tapped steel, jolting forward, then stopped. He raised his metalminds, looking at them, shocked.

The Inquisitor grinned, winding up for a massive backhand, and Dawn mimicked trying to flee. Swinging his hand, the Inquisitor slapped Dawn into oblivion. Or - tried to. Dawn hadn't actually run out of steel, and tapped steel just as the backhand was inches away. Dawn stepped inside of the slap, pushed aside a raised axeblade with his knife, and reached up to pluck the second eye spike.

Dawn's steel ran out. The Inquisitor knocked his hand away, then slapped the knife out of Dawn's other hand. Pulling Dawn's knife back into his hand with iron, the Inquisitor quickly closed on Dawn, pushing him to the ground. Raising the knife.

And plunging it through Dawn's heart.

At first, searing, white-hot pain rippled through his body, as though lightning had radiated out from his heart. Numbness began to follow, and the world started to darken. Dawn appreciated the irony of his defeat, stabbed by his father's knife, the same blade that had claimed two of his other family members, even in his death throes. It was a sick, cruel irony, and it brought the tears of remembrance back to his eyes. At least he had tried. He had fought. He would never atone for his father, but -

Wait. His father's knife. The knife he had been given as a boy, as a gift to protect him. The same father who claimed to know Harmony and possessed the strange spren-killing knife. A realization dawned upon Dawn, and as the world began to fade away, Dawn felt with his soul at the knife, wondering if he could be right. He stared up at the leering face of the Inquisitor, who twisted the knife farther into his heart, sending more bolts of pain though his body. Dawn felt. And he felt a reserve of speed, unkeyed. The strip of metal along the steel knife...it was aluminum.

As the last vestiges of vision began to fail him, Dawn tapped that reserve, draining it in an instant, reached up, and pulled the spike from the Inquisitor's eye socket. A weight collapsed upon Dawn, and darkness consumed him.


	15. To Fight Forevermore

**Bit:** A vortex of sand spun; Bludgeon floated within. After three years, he had at last returned, and Detrare was failing.

Two pillars of sand slammed into the roof of the building, collapsing it. The maelstrom of glowing sand descended, the figure within with it. He landed and tapped bendalloy, keeping him from overmastery. He stretched out his hand and two long ribbons of sand swam forth, tugging him along. As he floated, he passed several large tapestries hanging on the wall. Time to use his secret weapon, the one that even Detrare didn't know about. Awakening.

"Find enemies." That was the command he used on every tapestry. Eventually, he would find his foes. And then they would die. He was an Inquisitor, after all.

**Cole:** "If I don't surrender, then my children will surely die," he growled back. "You are foolish to believe that their leader can't see everything that is happening in his own domain. He will undoubtedly sense her death." Unknown to Cole, Tomain wore a sadistic grin; this outcome outshone any of her expectations. "I assume you are related to Tesh, child. Your death would bring me no joy." He unsheathed his dark blade and pointed it at Tesh. "But hers? Maybe a little."

**Ink:** Something comes flying out of the hall toward us. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a tapestry. As soon as it sees us, it flies back the way it came. Awakened, then. I whisper to my cloak, "Protect me," and feel it stiffen; then the world goes dimmer. I'd had those Breaths so long, it felt like losing a part of me. I run after the tapestry, calling for the group to follow. Most of them do.

We round a turn to see another Inquisitor, a hole in the roof, and rubble leading in a slope upward. I turn back to the group. "As soon as my bubble pops up, run. I can take this guy," I say, swallowing the gold medallion that grants me Feruchemy. I run close to him and put up a cadmium bubble. _Stay safe, everyone_, I think, as I pull out my gun and face this Inquisitor. "You will pay for those you've killed," I say to it.

**Bit:** Bludgeon smiled, so wide that his grotesque face became uglier, if that was even possible. Two long ropes of sand slithered toward the man who approached, gently floating along. He was supposedly all blunt force; after all, his name was Bludgeon. He was anything but. Years of precise training, along with several knowledge spikes and three spikes that each granted the ability to control twenty-five ribbons of sand had made him graceful, but also dangerous. The lashes snapped forward, intending to grab the man's ankles.

**Ink:** _What?! _I think. _He controls rusting sand?!_ This will be interesting. I drop a coin and Push off it, raising above the tendrils of sand. I take out a pistol and shoot the Inquisitor multiple times; I have three ettmetal bullets left, and I won't waste them until I'm sure they'll kill him.

**Fire:** _NO_. Rathil forced his eyes open. _This will not. Happen. Today! _He shifted his exposed knee to touch the medallion. _I'm not done here yet! _The sudden urge to survive flared within him as he tapped everything in the metalmind at once, healing all his wounds instantly and shaking him into lucidity. He gasped as the shock of power surged through him faster than any Stormlight ever had and looked up to see the huge black sword coming down at him. _My life isn't yours to take! _He bellowed in defiance and yanked against the person tugging on his right side, knowing he would be sliced in half anyway if he struggled both ways. The man hadn't been expecting the sudden resistance and lost his grip. Rathil jerked to the left, barely evading the swing that would kill him. Instead, it cleanly chopped off his right arm almost to the shoulder.

**Bit:** In quick succession, his foe's bullets fell to the ground, blocked by a wall of sand. In a raspy voice, Bludgeon cackled, then grinned. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" He whipped another blade of sand forward and again tapped nutrition, taking him away from the edge of overmastery. He turned to the wall and said, "Eat enemies."

The wooden wall splintered and cracked as it formed into the shape of a sandling. It crept toward the man, scratching the floor with a sound like nails on a chalkboard. More sand blades shot forth.

**Ink:** I look at the moving wall and the sand. My bullets won't be very useful against this creature. I burn bendalloy, giving me time to assess the situation. Wall and sand, front and sides. I have only one choice; atium.

Dropping the bendalloy bubble, my reserves of that metal low, I take the single, small bead from my coat and pop it into my mouth. I swallow and burn it. _There,_ I think, seeing a small gap that everything would miss. I Steelpush off the coin I used earlier, sailing over the obstacles and straight behind the Inquisitor. Atium no longer burning, the reserve nearly halved in those few seconds, I rush in for a pewter-enhanced knife strike.

**Ene:** I watch as Quell dashes at the Inquisitor; suddenly, they're moving entirely too slow. _Cadmium._ I set my hand tiredly on Dog, then take the time to check over the former prisoners; at this point, Quell can handle himself. Of that I'm sure. He must be a Mistborn, not just an Allomancer as I long ago assumed. The captives take priority. Quell knew what he was getting into, while they probably didn't.

Or so, after a few minutes checking over people and helping with wounds, I thought. A giant - I'm fairly certain that's a sandling - is _emerging from the wall_. With a yelp, I jump forward, feeling a strange jolt burst through me at my intrusion through the speed bubble's barrier. Dog follows, trumping loudly. Everything speeds up. Quell is abruptly in the air, knife out.

I throw myself at the Inquisitor he's fighting, knowing gold will be enough to keep me alive. Should be enough. I have a lot stored, and haven't used any so far.

**Fire:** The two Inquisitors bashed at each other with all they had, dodging attacks and lunging out of the way of one another's strikes. Mask expertly wielded the single-chained hook as he countered nearly every strike from Bloodbath, but the other Inquisitor was making use of a mace, a sword, an axe, and a spike, each at the end of barbed chains that interlocked and linked back to his belt, cycling through each barbaric weapon with terrifying efficiency. Despite this, Mask landed multiple hits on the Inquisitor, which Bloodbath promptly healed from and ignored, only letting them infuriate him further.

Bloodbath let loose a furious frenzy of each weapon, swinging them about with abandon and trying to land a hit. But Mask kept dodging them, his flaring of pewter and storage of weight making it easier to jump out of the way of an attack and coordinate his attacks and blocks better. He remained silent, blocking each hit and waiting for the opportunity to strike.

In a small moment in which Bloodbath was tossing his axe to his right hand, dropping the sword in that hand, and reaching for the spike he Pulled up into his left hand, Mask lunged forward and swung the hook upward with pewter-enhanced force, driving the hook up in between Bloodbath's ribs, right below the sternum. Bloodbath grunted in satisfaction, appreciating the pain, then head-butted Mask as hard as he possibly could.

Which was an unwise course of action, as aluminum is much more durable than a human cranium, and Bloodbath cracked his skull, crying out in surprise. Mask took advantage of this, yanking the spike out of Bloodbath's stomach with a sickening squelch and swinging it around to whack him in the jaw with the curved end, cracking against the mad Inquisitor's jaw.

Bloodbath twisted and collapsed to the ground, groaning and grunting, trying to curse through a broken mouth. He was steadily healing throughout all of this, and only getting angrier. His goldmind stores were running low, even with his ability to compound. He'd only had those abilities as an Inquisitor for a few days, which hadn't given him much time or room to store health to compound it.

But despite only being an Inquisitor for a few days as he was, Bloodbath had adjusted to the change quicker than anyone else who had come before him. It was the form he was born for, after all. And he wasn't going to let himself die right before achieving his true destiny. So Bloodbath flared pewter as well, gauging how much he would heal himself. Only the most major wounds. He would relish the rest of the pain. Then he leapt to his feet and lashed out at Mask with reinvigorated fury.

The silent Inquisitor only barely dodged the axe attack that would have decapitated him, leaping backward. Mask realized that going on like this wasn't going to work, and then an idea came to mind. He needed to find a way to get enough spikes out of Bloodbath without him healing from them. Which meant he'd need to go skyward.

Mask dropped his hook, filled his ironminds with weight, and Pushed off the hook into the air. Bloodbath screamed and pulled out a fistful of small, sharp triangles of metal, dropping one to the ground and Pushing up after Mask, his myriad of weapons dangling to his side. Mask Pushed on Bloodbath's weapons to launch himself farther into the air and keep the rabid Inquisitor held down. Bloodbath bellowed in rage and denial, storing weight in his own ironminds and Pulling on his weapons. Then he Pushed the metal triangles up at Mask, who barely managed to twist out of the way and swerve them away with a quick Push to keep them from running him through the chest. Despite the effort, one of them bounced off his mask and another dug deep into his shoulder.

Mask winced in pain, unable to even grunt. Bloodbath, however, snarled and screamed as he Pushed himself higher, almost reaching Mask's level. Suddenly, Mask stopped Pushing and quickly drew on some of the weight he had been storing, slowing in the air as Bloodbath rushed up to meet him. Mask kicked him right in the face, then grabbed the collar of his robes to drag him down with him. Bloodbath spat blood on the front of his mask, clawing for his face and at his neck. Mask tried prying his hands away and keeping out of reach, but Bloodbath was relentless. Mask finally Pushed on his hook still on the ground to slow his fall, then Pulled it back up to him. If he could only…

Bloodbath Pushed on the hook and chain as it reached Mask's level, slamming it into the silent Inquisitor's chest and launching him backward. Mask Pushed back, and their simultaneous Pushing on the same object pushed them hundreds of feet across the plain in opposite directions until both slammed into the ground, skidding and rolling backward.

Bloodbath leapt to his feet, his face a bloody mess. He stared across the plain at the masked traitor, Pulling the axe and the mace chained to his belt up into his hands. Mask got up a little more groggily, stumbling as he looked back at the raving Inquisitor in red and black. They were both bruised and bloodied, their Inquisitor robes torn to shreds all over. For a moment, all was still. The Exemplar of Ruin and the Speaker of Silence stood in the calm, cool night of the Scadrian Roughs, facing each other down from hundreds of feet away.

Then they surged toward each other, storing weight and flaring pewter to run faster. Mask knew he needed to keep his metals in check, even with the huge amounts of pewter powder he'd swallowed earlier, while Bloodbath burned and tapped his metals with reckless abandon. _Anything to kill this filthy traitor_, he thought. Then Mask stopped in his tracks, tapping the weight he had just stored and _Pulling_ on the weapons chained to Bloodbath's waist. The weapons all snapped off their chains, links clattering to the ground. Bloodbath held firm to what he was carrying, but the short sword and spike lurched toward Mask. Bloodbath grinned and gave them an extra Push, hoping to at least run Mask through with them.

But the Speaker of Silence Pushed on them, hoping to swerve them out of the way, and turned sideways in time for them to fly by him. He reached out and grabbed the spike as it passed by, however, wincing again as the barbed chains still linked to it tore into his hand. Then he stabbed it down below him hard into the flat ground, tapping weight and Pushing it deep down until only the spike head was poking up through the dirt. Now he needed to get Bloodbath close to him - he was there. The Exemplar launched himself at Mask, roaring in rage. "Filthy, dirty traitor!" he screamed. "I'll rip you into bits of flesh and bone, drink your blood, and burn your remains until you are nothing!"

Mask said nothing as he dodged away from Bloodbath's first strike. He brought up the sword to counter the axe attack, then grabbed Bloodbath arm holding the mace and twisted, snapping his wrist. Then Mask head-butted Bloodbath, trusting in the aluminum mask to work for him again. Bloodbath grunted and snarled, healing his wrist and the new fracture in his head, then tossed the weapons to the side, going at Mask with his fists instead. The Speaker of Silence did likewise, and they punched and clawed at each other as if their lives depended on it. As if the world depended on it. Which, in a way, it did. If Bloodbath won, there would be nothing to stop him from laying waste to Elendel. Unless Ironeyes himself came to deal with him. But Bloodbath knew that if he could beat this stupid little traitor, then he could deal with the other enemy Inquisitor.

But Mask had survived this long already. He would do all he could to stop this monster who might have once been considered a brother to him had he remained with his original objective. Now, he would fight him and all his comrades with all he had, even if it killed him. Mask had died once already. He figured Harmony would let it be the second time. The two of them beat away at each other, ripping at the tattered remains of one another's robes and punching one another all over. The other members of the Inquisition watched from a distance, waiting to see who would win until Bloodbath remembered them, looking back and shouting as loud as possible, "Go! Ruin Elendel!"

They quickly obeyed and ran in the direction they knew they were supposed to go. Mask looked after them, feeling a draining sense of despair. He couldn't get to them until he defeated Bloodbath, assuming he even did. He needed to end this. From about a hundred feet away, he Pulled on his hook that lay on the ground, yanking it toward him. Bloodbath was too focused on the enemy in front of him to expect an attack from behind, so it came as a complete surprise when the hook smashed into his back, snapping his spine. Bloodbath fell forward, collapsing on Mask as he continued clawing away at his face. But the mask was still on.

Bloodbath hurriedly healed from that wound, knowing that his compounded gold stores were running very low now. He could only heal from a few more fatal wounds. Both Inquisitors were running low on iron and steel as well; they were reaching their endgame. There were weapons scattered on the ground all around them. Mask's hook, which was bent out of shape from their Pushing contest, Bloodbath's various other handheld weapons, the sharp metal triangles, and the shattered chain links. The lines of blue coming out of each of their chests pointed seemingly everywhere around them.

At the same time, they realized this. So they Pushed and Pulled, throwing various metal objects at one another until one would land a telling blow all while continuing to bludgeon away at each other. Mask was flaring pewter throughout all of it, an ability he already had enhanced strength in, so his blows were more damaging. However, Bloodbath could heal the wounds, an ability Mask unfortunately didn't possess. And now they were dodging flying metal objects they were launching at each other.

Until finally the short sword partially lodged itself in Mask's gut and the spiked mace ball dug into Bloodbath's ribs. Mask would have groaned if he still had a voice, and Bloodbath gasped as he hurriedly ripped the ball out and started healing. His goldmind stores were nearly depleted. He began to panic. Mask knew he couldn't keep pushing himself too far with pewter before his wounds caught up to him.

They both stopped Pushing and Pulling on the metals around them, and Mask finally pulled his signature aluminum mask off his head. It was immune to Pushes and Pulls, and could still do some damage. It was almost all he had left. Holding the mask in his left hand like a gauntlet, he swung at Bloodbath, who was at the point of compounding his last goldmind within him. He had sustained _so many_ injuries, and he was _still_ fighting. They both should have been dead by now.

As Bloodbath was reorienting himself, Mask's makeshift aluminum gauntlet smashed into his face. The Speaker of Silence's blow was enhanced by a flare of pewter - though his stores of it were running low, despite how massive they were at first - and Bloodbath's right eye spike actually bent out of place, crushing the bone around it. This was something the Exemplar of Ruin had reason to panic about. Losing his spikes. He screamed and shoved Mask back. Mask let himself stumble backward until he was right above the spike he had driven into the ground. He was going to try his method again.

As Bloodbath charged at him, pulling the axe into one of his hands, he also drew an obsidian machete out from the back of his belt. It had been camouflaged against the black of the robes. He'd figured out the same thing Mask had - to use nonmetal weapons. He'd planned on using it as a last resort - and to more specifically be the tool with which he would behead the legendary Ironeyes - but now it was his counter against Mask using...well, his mask to fight.

But right as Bloodbath swung both machete and axe, Mask filled his ironmind with weight and _Pushed_ vertically into the air off the spike in the ground. His steel was running out, but with his weight decreased as it was, his momentum would carry him farther upward even once he'd stopped Pushing. Bloodbath Pushed off one of the chain links, excited for more action up above the mists. The Inquisitors sailed into the sky, both ready to finally end this.

**Bit:** Bludgeon growled, then roared in rage. How had he dodged such a powerful attack? He rolled sideways, dodging the knife strike. He glanced up in surprise as the girl leapt at him, using sand to smoothly sweep himself aside. He ran to the sandling and retrieved his Breath, then burned nicrosil and touched a clump of black sand, recharging it. As they spun and charged again, in a flash, a stream of sand sliced at the girl's throat.

**Ink:** I Push off a metal girder, going for my next attack, sailing above both their heads. I go for another knife strike, flaring pewter.

**Ene:** A line of sand whipped around at me; I yelped when it hit. Jerking myself out of my lunge, I hit the ground with knees bent. I could feel blood trickling out; frantically tapping a goldmind, I began to heal my throat. The wound sealed agonizingly slowly as I tried not to waste any health. Going faster would have taken more.

I heard a noise and turned in surprise. Dog, my axehound, was...still moving? Still going at the Inquisitor. I opened my mouth to yell, but it strained the wound, so I quit, merely watching. And hoping. _Harmony, Almighty. Anyone. Please… _

**Sami:** If there was anything Sam hated more than self-righteous people, it was the feeling of not being in control. She wasn't particularly proud of her past activities in the gang world of Roshar, but she accepted that as her decision. It was the place where she thrived best. And then this man suddenly walked in, insinuating that she was merely a puppet doing his will?

A wave of anger took over her fear. Knuckles clenched white around the hilt of her dagger. "You *******," she hissed. "With the rusting guts to rock in here and call me a puppet. Every single thing I did was because _I_ chose to. I killed that leader because I _wanted _to." She stopped to take in a shuddering breath.

She'd always thought all she ever had to keep was her independence - thrust into her hands from her earliest memories since nobody had cared enough to keep it for her. He didn't get to take that thought away from her.

**Tesh:** I look over at Mahshi, feeling strangely calm. I've faced death before, even been killed once before. But I was saved by Mathis. He's dead now. I'm going to die. I'll see Sazin again. And Mathis. And everyone else I've known who has died.

But...I basically killed them all myself. I can't face them. But I can't stay here.

The world is falling apart.

Mahshi stares at his sister, slumped against the wall, her injured leg of in front of her and a conflicted look on her face. He seems to have been forgotten at the moment.

Now. No. Not yet...NOW! Mahshi flares pewter and taps steel.

**Bit:** Bludgeon screamed in rage, then slashed at the roof, cutting sections out. They collapsed. Suddenly, a knife was buried in his left shoulder by the Allomancer; he grimaced and grabbed at his throat, then hefted the man and punched his face, tossing him at the wall.

**Ink:** As I stab the Inquisitor, he grabs me by the throat and hurls me into a wall. I can feel bones break all over. Inside me, I can sense the goldmind brimming with health. I burn a small amount of the gold, and everything broken in me mends. Rusts, if the fight goes like this, I can't lose. I have plenty of that gold left, and it didn't seem the Inquisitor had any. He was going to die long before I actually sustained damage.

**Bit:** With a scream of anger, Bludgeon ripped out the knife and sent forth dozens of arrows of sand, pounding into the dog, the Allomancer, and the girl. Several may have hit in fatal places, although it seemed that the humans could heal.

**Fire:** Detrare chuckled and shook his head. "Yes, of course those were your own actions, make no mistake. But technically, everything we do furthers God's will. Every time someone holds themselves to an oath, they are doing the will of Honor. Every time someone lets their emotions loose with abandon, they are doing the will of Passion. And every time you destroy something - every person you kill, everything that you burn with your Surgebinding - you are doing the will of Ruin. Yes, you made those choices of your own volition, but they are also the Intent of Ruin. Without even trying, you obey Ruin's will. Which means you are on our side no matter what you claim, because we are on Ruin's side. All of you Knights have always been fulfilling Ruin's Intent for every destructive action you commit. Even in fighting us, you help us. So there's no way out of it, really. No escape from Ruin."

He held up the gemstone for her to see, letting the implication settle. He didn't look into it and feel for everyone's souls at the moment. He didn't want to distract himself from the task at hand. "But let me ask you this," he said before she could speak up again. "Why did you try killing Tesh at the Horneater Peaks? Were you entirely yourself when you attempted that?"

**Ink:** As I get back up, I feel stinging all over my body. The Inquisitor is relentless, but I instantly healed those wounds. I've heard legends...legends that say a powerful enough Allomancer could control Hemalurgic creations. I burn brass, targeting the Inquisitor, flare it, then burn duralumin, trying to break the Inquisitor.

**Bit:** Bludgeon resisted and shoved forth a torrent of sand. It occupied practically every inch of the hall, tearing at them, rending them. Hopefully.

Bludgeon fell to his knees; he was almost overmastering. He tapped nutrition, but his reserves were gone. His throat was dry. He croaked and Awakened strips of cloth to bind these enemies. As he collapsed to both overmastery and Allomancy, he sent several more ribbons at the Mistborn, slicing him in various places, including an artery on his calf.

Death.

**Ink:** The Inquisitor seemed desperate. My brass ran out; I never got ahold of him. I see some Breath drain from him as hundreds of sand lines fly toward me, the Inquisitor falling down. The sand hits everywhere, feeling like a swarm of wasps. His cloak tries to choke me, but the tatters of mine barely hold it back. Compounding gold, many of my wounds heal. Suddenly, the gold runs out. How? I thought I had much more. The last ribbon of sand cuts my leg as the Inquisitor dies. I know this as all his Breath fades from him, and the cloak stops trying to choke me.

"You all right?" I call to Diona, trying to staunch the blood coming from my leg and many other small cuts. I retrieve my Breath from my cloak, back to the Third Heightening. After all this, I'll never leave a place without Feruchemical Gold. The stuff's too useful. I burn pewter to hold back some of the pain.

**Ene:** Sand exploded from the Inquisitor, pounding us all. My gold finished its work just in time as I became buried in sand. Panic claimed me for a frantic second, but I forced myself to calm down. I was fine. I started digging my way out...and remembered. Oh, storms. Dog.

Clawing the rest of the way out, I gasped free. Quell looked fine, though he was bleeding a lot. The Inquisitor lay unmoving. Had he killed it? My gaze sought my pet. I found him.

I was there without remembering the distance I'd just crossed, staring. His carapace was splintered and chipped from the pressure. His eyes were shut. I didn't have the courage to touch them; I checked his breathing, instead. And held in a sob.

I told myself it was just a good thing no humans had died yet. I told myself to grow up; he was just an axehound. But he was _my_ axehound. My friendly, overprotective, _stupid_ enough to get himself into a fight with a Hemalurgist axehound. Mine for years. Mine whenever I had needed him there, and now he _wasn't_ mine, _wasn't _anyone's, _was_ gone.

I forced myself up, feeling myself crack like glass. Not physically, just emotionally. Almost I had thought we'd be able to get out with no casualties. I stepped over to Quell, nodding at our foe. "Hey. You okay? Is it dead?"

**Ink:** I watch as Diona sees the corpse of her dog-like creature. She really liked it. I would've Soothed or Rioted her, but feelings about the dead should not be changed. I cough once, tasting a bit of blood. Probably just a small cut. "Yeah, I'm fine," I say. "And I'm pretty sure it's dead." I cough again. This place must have a lot of dust. Then my pewter runs out.

I can feel all the small cuts on me, slowly dripping. I'm light-headed, dizzy, losing blood. Not good. "Diona," I say firmly, reaching into my coat. "Take these to the rest of the Knights. One for them and one for Feonna. Take that one to her if you can." I hand her the letters. "I don't think I'll last much longer," I continue. "I've lost too much blood. I want you to take these. My life to yours, my Breath become yours." As I say that, the pain becomes worse, and I can't think straight anymore. I cough up more blood. "Heh. Never thought it would end this way. Well, I'm going to The Brass Ferring, Macy. Do you want anything?" I say before I lose consciousness.

**Ene:** "Yeah, I'm fine. And I'm pretty sure it's dead." Quell coughed; he didn't look well. I rose slowly as he offered me a couple of letters, one for the other Knights and one for someone named Feonna. I accepted them.

It hit me, suddenly, that he was dying. His blood loss was going to take him away from us. The walls inside me cracked a little more.

His next words took me by total surprise. "My life to yours. My Breath become yours." He had Breath? I'd never realized. I barely had time for that, however, before I was slammed into the ground by joy. Gaining Breaths, I once was told, is like an injection of pure life and vitality, ecstasy and senses and _power_. That was true, but feeling it myself was indescribable. I was stunned to the point that I actually fell over and trembled with the sensation. Better than fresh health. Better than a metal burning in your stomach.

When the Breaths were done with me, I could see the Investiture lighting up my surroundings, enhancing their beauty just a bit. I might have stared, if it wasn't for Quell. I could see, already, that he was gone, and I shook again. Not from joy, but from misery. How? How to get through this sorrow so overwhelming that not even Breaths could heal it? Was there anything that could help me, anyone who could possibly…

_Dawn. _He was off fighting in some other part of the fortress, but maybe I could help. Even if he and his Aviar couldn't raise my emotions, fighting by him should at least erase some of my pain. Well, numb it temporarily. But I was used to temporary solutions. Holding off things or people for just a little longer, just a _few more minutes...days… _

I stood, blinded by the glory of the colors for an instant, but determined to ignore them until a later date. I gave Dog one last agonized glance, unable to do the same with Quell, and headed firmly in the direction I'd last seen Dawn.

**Tesh:** I watch as Mahshi runs at the old woman, inhuman in his speed. He crashes into her, knocking her to the ground like a boulder hitting a person. He pins her and looks like a statue; he doesn't move, staying firm. I watch with slight confusion. This is not the boy I grew up with. Or the teen I abandoned in Scadrial.

I quickly rip a sleeve off of my coat and wrap it tightly around my leg for a little support. Then I stand, on a broken leg, and face Cole. One-eyed, one-armed, wielding the powers of a Fullborn. And I am me; no one else. Just me. Tesh Brinian, not Kholin. No Stormlight, no Shards.

Just me. And it's all right.

**Fire:** Rathil screamed in pain as nearly his entire arm was ripped right off. _No! I'm not dying yet! _He slammed his left shoulder into the face of the man on his left, wrenching his arm out of his grasp. But then the huge man with the black sword backhanded Rathil across the face. The entire left side of his face blazed with pain, and he felt bones crack. He collapsed to the ground, feeling the kicks all over. A particularly powerful one, presumably from the huge man, cracked who knew how many of his ribs, and he gasped. _No...I'm not dying yet...Please… _

He looked up to see the large muscular man pull a red and orange stained-glass knife out of the storming _hilt of the sword_, then slash it down at him. Rathil tried rolling out of its way, but it still sliced through his mouth and tore open his cheek. He groaned in pain, reaching up to grab at the skin of his cheek. No…The man stabbed downward once again, going for the chest.

Rathil frantically reached up with his remaining arm and grabbed the man's wrist, pushing back as hard as he could. It didn't stop the knife from stabbing into his shoulder. Rathil grunted, teeth clenched and eyes wide as he stared the man in the eye, and while, gripping his wrist, he kicked the huge man in the stomach repeatedly, trying to struggle out of his reach as the knife pressed in deeper. Then the man stopped pushing down, cocked his head, and stood up, hefting the sword upon his shoulder.

"You...have Passion," he said softly, as if that explained anything. "We could use this. You have caused Ruin already. We would just need to install the proper Devotion into you to make you one of our own." He leaned down and grabbed Rathil by the shoulder, still expressionless. "Then you will bring Ruin to those who deserve it. Or you will be Ruined. Swiftly."

"Storm you," was the only reply Rathil spat out. The man reached down, grabbed Rathil by the shirt, and effortlessly lifted him. Then he tossed Rathil at least twenty feet across the room, sending him crashing to the ground. His shirt tore open at the front, and Rathil's lucky spheres and extra knives tumbled to the floor around him - even the aluminum-silver one. He groaned, certain that more bones had broken. It hurt so much. Almost as much as his last day on Scadrial so long ago, when that Inquisitor had killed the last of his family right in front of him and left him bleeding and alone in the ash. He was even missing an arm this time, just like before. Only this time it was his right arm. Did that even matter?

"Let me deal with him," the huge man rumbled.

"But Aloo, he -"

"He has a Passion we can turn to our advantage," the man named Aloo said calmly. "I will see if our master Detrare can convert him, or else I will Ruin him myself in front of our master."

Rathil desperately tried crawling, but not to get away from Aloo. To get that knife, put it back in his pocket. He had a small, vain hope within him that he could get out of this, but he knew that such hope was false. At least it was better to try something than to give up.

Aloo promptly lifted up Rathil with one arm and slung him over his shoulder. Rathil groaned and dry heaved at the sudden strong motion. He couldn't move. It hurt too much to move. It hurt to hold still as well. Everything hurt, even where he knew it shouldn't hurt. He still felt a pain shooting up his right arm, though it wasn't there.

Aloo carried him unceremoniously down the hall, apparently to find this Detrare fellow. Rathil could do nothing. He wasn't going to Ruin anything for these monsters, not like this Aloo man said. No, he was his own monster. He Ruined what he wanted to. Even if it would mean Ruining himself.

**Cole:** Cole let loose an unconscious growl of rage. He redirected his sword at Mahshi. "My children's lives lie in the hands of this woman, and you dare to hurt her?" Uncontrollable rage flowed through Cole until he heard movement behind him. Suddenly his face contorted into an smile, but no mirth was present in his eyes. Only the desire to cause pain. "I guess I'll play the same game."

Cole began moving toward Tesh, blade sheathed once more at his side, and cold, calculating hatred in his eyes. As soon as he got close, Cole pulled a slender blade from a hidden pocket in his pants, then slashed it down at Tesh.

**Tesh:** I raise my sword above my head and block, then slide to the right, still holding back Cole's blade, and jerk my sword away, slashing him across the stomach.

**Ene:** I ducked my head into another door. Empty. Running along the hallway, I worried. What if Dawn wasn't okay? What if he'd been fighting? Another door. Was that..._Cole?_ Storms, what had happened to him? And Mahshi and Tesh...oooookay then. I backed off and left them to it. I didn't know the dynamics of this group, and if they were going to fight each other instead of the Inquisition, then that wasn't _good_ exactly, but I wasn't going to get involved.

Another door. I'd been checking in every one I passed, methodically moving through the hallways of the New Inquisition. Every now and then I would encounter an enemy and have to defeat them, but I hadn't found a real challenge yet. This door held a raucous bunch of men and women, eating and drinking. I slipped past without alerting any.

I peeked into the next doorway. There were bodies on the floor.

I again was there instantly without conscious thought, barely registering two broken, feathered bundles collapsed on the ground nearby, coins scattered around them. I spared a glance at the Inquisitor; dead, its eyes spikeless and bleeding. But most of my focus was caught on the figure in front on me.

One arm was broken, and he was covered in bruises. He had fallen on his back, staring up, blue eyes open. Fourth of the Dawn was dead.

He was dead, and I

was

_shattering_.

I sank to my knees. No. No. No. No. Nonono..._NO._

He couldn't be gone. I'd had so little time to talk with him. Had my feelings been love, had they been mere friendship, had they been familial? All? None? I hadn't been given enough time to tell. Just enough to know that losing him HURT.

_Dog, carapace shattered. _

_Quell, quite literally sending me his last Breaths. _

_People, dying - punished - my fault… _

_"You don't want him to come out, do you? Behave and learn, and maybe they'll stop dying." _

And now Dawn. This wasn't the same. I _knew_ that, I knew it, and yet it hurt just as much. More. I whimpered, staring, unable to look away despite knowing that this would only scar me more. I could never forget it now. There would be no suppressing this tragedy.

...

How could the scene of death before me be so beautiful, so transformed by the Breaths I now held? Perfect crimsons and scarlets. His eyes were shades of cobalt and sapphire, lively and colorful even when they should not be.

...

Why? No matter what...no matter what, this was always the end.

…

I blinked to realize that some time had passed and I was still sitting there, just looking. I didn't want to look anymore. I did as I had as a child and filled my goldminds. Filled them to the point where I approached unconsciousness.

I continued to fill until I felt myself fall into the silky black depths of avoidance. Avoiding the pain. Regressing to who I was before. Letting myself fall...Fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall _and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall andfallandfallandfallandfallandfallandfalland_

Fall

…

**Cole:** As Tesh's blade caught him in the stomach, Cole moved back, keeping it from cutting any organs. Healing anything much more than flesh was beyond him. He moved back three more steps, then reached down and grabbed bullets that had gone astray during the firefight. In the same movement, he threw them in the air and _Pushed _them at Tesh. They spread out, covering a large area while accelerating.

**Tesh:** I fall to the ground as I see the bullets rise. Even as I fall, one catches me on my already wounded leg. I see one rip a hole in Mahshi's sleeve and hear him grunt as it hits him, but he stays firm thanks to his pewter. I don't have any Stormlight, though, and am forced to bear the full strength of the pain. I can't beat this. Without Stormlight, I'm nothing. I still try, though.

**Fire:** Bloodbath seethed as he sailed into the sky after the traitor. Would that he could just instantly annihilate him in a burst of flame and gore. He wanted nothing more than to just _crush everything to powder and burn it away to nothingness_, and this storming traitor was getting in the way of it! "_Get down here_!" he screamed with fury as they Pushed themselves higher and higher. Whatever he was planning, he was wasting Bloodbath's time, whether he was trying to or not.

The mists surrounded them, but Bloodbath never took his gaze off the traitor. They kept on sailing upward through the misty night. _What is he planning?_ Bloodbath wondered. An offhand thought passed through his head that if only he could ignite the very mists themselves, he could burn this world to a cinder in no time. Which would be wonderful, but that would give him nothing to savor. He wanted to relish drowning this planet in blood and ash. Like the glorious days of old. Back when Ruin roamed free, unbound by a fusion to pathetic Preservation. In this day and age, Bloodbath was now Ruin. He would take the Shard's place and do better than he ever could. And after he was done with Scadrial, he would spit in Harmony's face and move on to the next world. This is what he was born for. Nothing would get in the way of that. _Nothing! _

Bloodbath felt a sudden tugging on his waist. He was being yanked downward! He still had the remnants of his chain belt on! The axe and machete trembled in his hands, weighing downward as well. Bloodbath quickly dropped the axe and unclipped his belt, Pushing off the both of them. He held the machete out in front of him, altering the angle at which the bloody traitor would be Pushing off it. The extra weight of the knife suddenly stopped, and Bloodbath knew the coward had stopped Pushing.

After a couple moments, the two of them finally broke the threshold, and the mists cleared away. Bloodbath breathed in fresh air, hating its unburnt scent, as the stars blinked in the sky completely uncovered. The sea of mists churned hundreds of feet below them as they flew ever higher. Bloodbath saw that he was close to the traitor now. For just a moment, it was just the two of them, glorious creations of Ruin drifting above the reach of the mists and looking down upon the world below as if they were gods.

Which they were. Too bad one of them was on the wrong side. Then the other Inquisitor stopped rising upward, obviously having stopped his Pushing, or hopefully run out of steel, and Bloodbath Pushed the machete in his hand directly toward him once he reached his level. The coward obviously Pushed back against it, and their Pushing contest sent them lurching horizontally in opposite directions. So he did still have some steel.

"NO!" Bloodbath screamed. He was not losing this! They sailed farther apart until suddenly, Bloodbath felt the Push against him cease as the machete spiraled forward at great speed. What...the traitor. He was Pulling the knife towards him, hoping to maybe get closer to Bloodbath. Surprisingly brave and stupid of him. Bloodbath almost kept Pushing, letting the machete simply pierce the other Inquisitor and be over with it. He hesitated. No, that would end things too quickly. Bloodbath wanted to make this last. He Pulled on the machete as well, and the two men were tugged toward each other as they started to fall back down into the mists.

Bloodbath kicked the enemy in the gut as he was punched in the face. His jaw cracked. The two grappled against one another, clawing and punching. Why didn't this pathetic excuse for an Inquisitor scream? Where was his Passion? Bloodbath spat blood in his face and screamed in fury once again. They were so closely pressed that the machete was lodged between them, but when the traitor shoved him back, it dropped out from beneath them. Bloodbath quickly Pulled it up to his chest level, but the traitor Pushed it at him. Bloodbath frantically Pushed back, launching the two of them away from each other again as they collapsed back into the mists.

Bloodbath Pushed with all his might, hoping for the other Inquisitor to run out of steel first. He was getting frantic to look for a logical way out of this. Anything to finish this whelp off quickly but in a satisfactorily painful way. The machete surged forward, and Bloodbath grinned. The traitor had finally run out of steel. This ******* was going to get what was coming for him now. Bloodbath had tried avoiding this before, but no more. It was time to end this. No more playing. Through his steelsight, he could see the knife shoot forward and stop as it collided with the idiot's stomach. _Finally_. He grinned.

No. Wait. Bloodbath's smiled disappeared as he looked more closely. It hadn't run the traitor through. The other Inquisitor had _caught_ the machete right before it ran him through. He'd storming _caught it_. "No!" Bloodbath shouted, Pulling on the machete's blade with a big tug, yanking himself to the idiot. The traitor threw the machete aside as they were about to collide, and Bloodbath shouted in triumph as he sailed forward, ready to rip his head off.

_THIS! ENDS! NOW! _

I hoped that once I stopped Pushing on objects, this raving Inquisitor would think I'd run out of steel and make a move. Now he has. As we hurtle toward the ground, I hope to finally succeed at what I was attempting before. I may have tricked this creature that might have once been called a man once already, but it will amount to nothing if I do not complete this now.

I raise my legs as he launches toward me, reaching for my head, and kick him firmly in the chest. He grunts, grinning as he grabs onto my legs. How can he smile? If he's gone through as much pain as I have, even a shadow of it, how is it that he can still hold his head up and face the world with any form of joy? He must be more broken than I am. I pity him. But I also must destroy him. Project Archangel ordered me to bring down those with power, and he is too dangerous to be allowed to live. I suppose the same can be said for me. All in due time.

I try pulling my legs out of his grip, kicking him repeatedly. He refuses to let go, screaming through a broken jaw, "I am death! Exemplar of Ruin! I...am...Bloodbath!"

_I am Death_. So I can relate to him. But I still must end him. The ground is reaching us fast. I stop kicking away, pulling myself close to him. He instantly grabs at my neck, attempting to strangle me, even though he could have just ripped these cursed spikes out of my eyes. He wants to make me suffer.

I've done enough suffering.

I grimace and respond by grabbing at his neck as well, not giving him any ideas. Then I twist in the air, turning him to be facedown. I tap my ironminds, making myself heavier, and Pull on my hook on the ground, sending it hurtling up towards me. With the other Inquisitor - Bloodbath, he calls himself - in the way of it. The hook smashes into the base of his neck, so close to the spike that I know we can't live without. But it doesn't seem to dislodge it, because Bloodbath only shouts in surprise and bellows, "_Stop doing that!_" True, this isn't the first time I've hit him in the back with the hook. Hopefully what I attempted before will work this time.

I reach behind him and grab the hook, continually flaring my pewter to keep from passing out. He's too strong. I can't...breathe…I'm…losing…consciousness…_No_. I won't let myself die now. I'm getting so close. This is my last chance before my metals will run out.

My vision is getting blurry. My head is throbbing. Callused fingers are digging into my neck. I stab the hook, bent enough as it is, into Bloodbath's arm and rip it back out. He yells, letting go with that arm. But before he can grab hold of my neck again, I hold up the hook and Push it into his face. The blunt end cracks of his nose, and he gasps in surprise and pain. He thought my steel had run out. His grip lessens.

_Finally_. I wrench out of his grasp, gasping for breath. Out of frustration, I knee him in the stomach, where he's already injured. The ground is coming up fast. We're only a few hundred feet up by now. He reaches for me again, spitting out, "I'll rip you to bloody bits, you *******!" I reach around, grab the back of his head, bend it downward, and hold it in place. Then I Pull the hook back up to hold in my other hand, and at the angle in which I'm grasping his head, I drive the pointed end of the hook up through the bottom of his chin, the tip piercing through the bottom of his mouth.

Finally. Before he can rip the hook back out of his mouth, I fill my ironminds to near weightlessness and Pull firmly on that spike that I had driven so deep into the ground. I lurch downward at an increased speed, yanking Bloodbath headfirst down with me. If I hadn't driven that spike deep into the ground as I had done, it wouldn't have held in place when I decreased my weight and Pulled on it. Now instead of Pulling it up to me, I am being Pulled to it.

Bloodbath screamed and flailed as the hook driven through his mouth yanked his head downward, quickly compounding his goldminds to heal all his wounds. He tried pulling the bent knob of metal out, but at the upside-down angle he was, the hook was firmly lodged into place. And then the last of his goldminds burned away within him, and all he had left was the little that was stored in the gold spike he hadn't yet swallowed. The rest of his body was perfectly healed now, but the bit he had left wouldn't be enough to deal with this chunk of metal lodged in his mouth. _Nonononononononononononono! _

Bloodbath panicked, flailing about more frantically. The ground was getting closer. This was too soon! This wasn't how it was supposed to end! He tried to scream in furious denial at this bloody rotten traitor, but all that came out was a gurgled, inhuman screech. They were falling even faster now.

_THIS ISN'T HOW I END!_ He tapped strength and grabbed the chain links connected to the hook, trying to snap them or crush them. Just like he was going to crush this filthy little meatsack's head.

Too late.

As I Pull myself even closer to the ground, I tap the weight I just stored and Pull on the link at the end of the chain, Pulling Bloodbath down at an even greater speed. After our extended skyward departure, we reached ground once again. _This is really going to hurt. But I deserve that. _With pewter enhancing my arms, I swing downward, giving Bloodbath that one final tug to the earth. I hit the ground before him, landing firmly feetfirst.

And hear both of my legs snap beneath me, the pain shooting through every inch of them in an instant, magnified in each individual part of my skeleton as it feels like all the bones in my legs are shattering beyond repair. I want to scream more than anything else as a _pain_ unlike any I have known since the day this change into an Inquisitor was wrought upon me stabs in and out of my legs thousands of times, driving me to my knees. But collapsing does nothing to lessen the pain, for my knees are broken too.

_Pain_. I feel like every inch of me is broken. _Pain_. Now my physical state matches how I am on the inside. _PAIN_. I would yell in agony, but I have no voice. I would cry, but I have no tears. How familiar. I see no good, for I cannot see. I speak no good, for I cannot speak. And now, I can do no good, for I can no longer move.

I collapse to the side, wanting to squeeze shut eyes that I no longer have, grunt with a throat that no longer allows a voice, and kick out with legs that feel nothing. The pain had surged through me for a few moments more, but now...it's gone. I feel nothing in my legs anymore. I can't even _feel_ my legs at all. I just lie motionless. I can't move anymore. Therefore, I cannot do any good. But...have I done any good? Trembling, I force my arms to lift myself up and look at what landed next to me.

I see a corpse lying motionless on the ground, a bloody mess of pulp where its head was. And in that mess of gore lies two blood-soaked spikes. Bloodbath had collided with the earth headfirst, the hook driving through to the top of his head and into the ground. The spikes were ripped out and the head was crushed. At least he wouldn't have felt the agony I am feeling now. It was a quick, instant death for him.

Why can't I have the same mercy? I've died once already! Can't it least be final? I ended this monster who would have burned a city to the ground as I did! I did my part in stopping the people who did this to me! Will it ever be enough? I told myself before that I wouldn't go back. I didn't want to go back to the pain. But now it's unavoidable. Harmony brought me back to it. Can't he let it end? Can't he take me back? Haven't I done enough?

_There is still more for you to do. _That whisper is faint, not audible by ear but distinguishable as a voice in the head. A voice I know. A voice I am now wanting to hate. What more does Harmony have for me? _You have not been finished. There is still life in you. I know you can do this. You must do more because you _can _do more. Do not give up yet, please. I ask this much of you. _

I can't...it hurts too much...there is no more I can do.

_You were given the first chance_, Harmony whispers to me. _Now this is your second. I am sorry for this pain you have gone through, even in my service, but such Ruin is necessary. _

I look up as if to stare at Harmony in defiance. But as I look up, I see the crowd of people in the distance. The ones Bloodbath ordered to go on without him. They've stopped and are looking back at the two of us, wondering about the outcome. They still need to be dealt with. They are what Harmony spoke of when he said there is more to do. I don't want to do this. I've been through enough already. But it must be done. After all, the best way to atone for destroying a city would be to keep the same fate from happening to another, would it not?

Harmony was right. This is my second chance. I remember Tesh's words to me. _You do not deserve a second chance. You still need the first. _I had that first chance. And now this, stopping Bloodbath and his acolytes...this is my second chance.

I won't fail in that. I won't go back to being a failure.

I won't go back!

I push myself up to my knees and face the crowd of people in the distance. Time for this to end.


	16. Oh No, Phoenix! Oh No, Rathil! Oh No -

**Ink:** I opened my eyes in the same place I was before. Was I...still alive? Then I saw my body on the ground. That, and the Inquisitor's body. And Dog. I felt bad for Diona, losing two people. At least she still had Dawn.

A Terrisman - no, _the_ Terrisman - was walking toward me. Harmony. I quickly bowed down. I was a Survivorist, but I knew of the Shards. "Lord Harmony," I said.

"You do not need to bow, Quell," he says. "I've been watching you ever since you burned that bead of lerasium. You caught my attention. You have done well."

"Thank you, Lord Harmony."

"Please, just Harmony. Your time here is short. You have brought much knowledge to the powers of this world. Your protégée is working hard too."

"How is she?"

"She's fine. She already knew the theory behind the goldmind you sent her."

I could feel that I was slipping away. "I don't think I have much time."

"You do not. I have no guess as to what lies beyond. I am no God, just a fraction of one. I do, however, believe that there is something."

"Do...do you know where I came from? Who my parents are?" I ask, the pulling getting stronger.

"I'm afraid not; I know your next question. I don't know where Kelsier, the Survivor, is."

The pull was too strong to resist much longer.

"Goodbye, Quell. I wish you good luck in the afterlife."

And then...nothingness.

Brightness. Blinding brightness is all I can see. Slowly, things start to fade into existence.

So this was the Beyond. It looked like a grassy field, with trees and cottages spaced all around. I saw a few other people appearing, including Dawn. Oh no...what about Diona? This would break her, losing her axehound and two friends, especially one as close as Dawn. An older man walked up to me. "Ah, Kilseo. You're here earlier than I expected."

"Who are you?" I asked. "And I'm not...Kilseo."

"Ah, yes, that's right. Quell," he said. "I forget, you never knew where you came from. I'm your grandfather."

"My...grandfather?"

"Yes, boy! Did you not hear me? Me, your grandmother, and your parents all were so nervous when we couldn't find you. You'd wandered away. You were just two years old. We never saw you again."

"Wait, then...where did I come from?"

"The city of Elantris. Your grandmother became an Elantrian shortly after your mother married your father. You were born three years later. They used every last resource they had to find you."

"You're saying I'm from Sel? Are my parents alive?"

"Go ahead and see for yourself!" he said, rubbing on the ground.

It looked like we were looking down on them. My parents looked older, a teenage boy sitting with them at dinner. My brother. They looked so happy; good for them. Then I remembered someone who would be here. "Grandpa, do you know of a Macy here?"

He chuckled. "I sure do. She and I have been watching you. You were so brave, so strong. You fought till the end. She was both sad and excited your reunion would be so soon. Come." He started walking towards one of the cottages.

The door flew open. An older Macy, more mature and beautiful, stepped out, a grin on her face. "Quell! I...wow. I never expected to meet you so soon. There is so much I have to show you!"

I felt my own grin forming. Then it faded. I turned to my grandpa. "We can see what's happening in the mortal realm, right?"

"Yes. Imagine the place or person you want to see, focus, and rub the ground like you're cleaning a glass."

I did what he said, watching the remaining Knights. Macy glanced down, too. "I wish I could have met them," she said.

"I wish you could have too," I reply.

**Cole:** After Tesh fell to the ground, Cole began limping to Mahshi. Before he even came close, the blood loss caught up with him, and he crashed to the ground. The nugget of remaining gold he still had stored winked out almost instantly, managing only to seal some of his wounds.

The last thing he felt before succumbing to darkness was pure terror for his children.

**Tesh:** Cole collapses.

Mahshi presses his hands over the woman's neck. He presses down; the neck snaps. He stands. I sheath the sword, and he helps support me.

We walk toward the screams, toward death, the end of everything we have known and loved. The end of life, but the beginning. The beginning of hope, love, life, time, fresh starts, and...something else. As we walk, I leave something behind. A weight I didn't know I was carrying. Gone. I don't know why; I might never know why. But I know now, whatever happens, it's what's meant to happen.

**Fire:** Detrare let his question hang for a moment, giving Samar a kindly smile as he waited for her response. Silence. She was contemplating it. Or perhaps she had retreated into some corner of her mind, reliving a distant memory. Coming back home could do that to someone, but Detrare didn't have time to wait for her response. "I will return later to speak with you further about this," he said, turning away from her to walk out the door, "but I have some pressing needs that require my attention. Those Knights you mistook for being your allies are causing _quite_ a disruption." He held up the gemstone to whisper into her soul, saying, "Trust me. You are where you belong. Come and join us. After all, we made you who you are. You have me to thank for those spikes. I gave you your Allomancy."

He left the room, closing the door behind him. It didn't matter if she followed him or not. If she did, it would either be to join him and take her place with the Fulfillment she had strayed away from so long ago, or to try killing him. No worries there. He would just kill her. It would be unfortunate, but necessary. If she would continue to bring Ruin to those who would maximize Ruin, then she herself would have to be among the Ruined. Simple as that. He needed more people on the side of the Fulfillment, especially since the loss of their other Radiants and two of their Inquisitors. Detrare vividly remembered that day Fist had died on Roshar when they sent their strike team to get rid of the Radiants. That was the day he realized just how much of a threat they posed to him.

Because of that, Fist was dead. And now Havoc had died as well. He was losing Exemplars, and he would need to fill in the empty ranks with new members. Or former members. Even if those included the very so-called Knights of the Cosmere contending with them. That was the plan for dealing with all life they met. Kill them right away, either through blade or Hemalurgy, or let them join them and die later on doing the godly work of Ruin as part of the Fulfillment. That plan was still in action. Nothing would stop that.

Reflecting on Havoc and Fist reminded Detrare of his other Inquisitor Exemplars. What about Bloodbath and Maim? Or the others who still remained out in the cosmere, preparing for the Fulfillment themselves? He held up the gemstone as he strode down the hallway, looking into it to feel his Connection to his Exemplars, seeking out Bloodbath's dear, familiar soul. And stopped dead in his tracks as he realized that it wasn't there.

His Connection to Bloodbath was gone. "NO!" he instinctively screamed, denying it instantly. For if the Connection was lost, that could only mean one thing. Bloodbath was dead. "No, no, no, nononononono…" Detrare said, panicking. He stumbled, clutching the gemstone tightly. No, this couldn't be happening. Not to his son! Not Bloodbath! Detrare went numb, collapsing to his knees. "No...Adonalsium, God, please no…"

Bloodbath was supposed to bring the most Ruin. He was meant to be the leader. He was supposed to finally meet his end in a blaze of glory and Passion at the end of it all. This was too soon. Too soon to be able to handle his sudden end. More importantly, he was Detrare's own child, his dear son, his beloved boy. He meant more to Detrare personally than anyone else in the Fulfillment. Their Devotion to each other as father and son had set an example to the rest of their members of what a true family should be in Devotion.

Detrare's hands shook as the sobs wrenched out of him, and the gemstone slipped out of his fingers, bouncing and rolling on the floor away from him. He didn't care. He fell to the ground, weeping and wailing as he continually repeated, "No, no, no…" Why did these Knights do this to him? Why were they killing those he knew and loved? Why would they not accept the truth and see that Ruin was the right side to be on? Why were they so intent on destroying him and everyone he loved?

What was one supposed to do when the one they cared about most was suddenly ripped away from them? The absence of the presence of Bloodbath's soul was a tear in Detrare's own soul, a part of him who died with his son. Exemplars had died before, to be sure - Mask, Fist, Havoc, those who came before, and he mourned for them. But it was nothing like this. This was a personal destruction of that which he held most dear. For once, it was destruction that Detrare hated. The Ruin of his own family before he was ready to face it. "No...Bloodbath...Saun…"

Detrare knew they would all have to die at some point for the Fulfillment, that it would be the sacrifice to make for true Fulfillment of Ruin. But at that moment, Detrare would have given up the entire Fulfillment just to have his boy back. He lay sobbing on the ground, all the chaos around him fading away and time ceasing to exist as he wept for his son.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix was getting frustrated, obsessive even. He had searched nearly every square inch of this maze of a fortress, and found no sign of its leader. He had become so laser focused in his search that he had nearly forgotten about the other Knights. Hopefully they were either handling their own, as Cole and Rathil likely would be, or escaped the fortress by now. By his count, the numbers _had_ dwindled significantly.

No thanks to him. Sure, he had killed a few members of the Inquisition here and there, but they were barely worth his time, simply low-ranking members who were following yells to one of the bigger fights and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Phoenix appeared. By all accounts, he'd probably done the least amount of damage to their forces out of all of them by now.

His strategy for what seemed like an eternity had been to focus in on every single life force in the fortress and rule it out as not being Detrare. A strategy rooted at the core in vengeful Passion, not logic as Phoenix had always claimed to live by. A strategy which so far had _utterly_ failed, and yet he hadn't changed his course. Wasn't this the _definition_ of insanity?

Finally, Phoenix turned back toward the lower levels of the fortress where they'd started. Best to take a breather, at least, and make sure that none of their own had unintentionally been left behind. Ah yes, he thought he could sense Sam up ahead. What was she doing down here, of all places? She could hold her own. Why wasn't she fighting with the others? Phoenix headed over in that direction. Suddenly, he heard loud moans and piercing screams from ahead. It was the voice of his former student, Detrare. Finally! But he couldn't let Sam claim this one. Detrare was _his_.

Phoenix ran into the next room and found his former pupil wailing on the floor like a child. No. This was _not_ the way Phoenix would face the man who had ruined his life. Phoenix raged inside, fighting to regain control of himself_. _All thought of helping Sam had been completely forgotten with the chance encounter of that _monster_. In that moment, trying to regain his composure, Phoenix stared off into the distance and noticed a brief glint that caught caught his eye from off the floor. A gemstone, but not just any ordinary gemstone. Phoenix reached out with his life sense and was overwhelmed with the response: a pure, unrestrained desire to _Ruin_ hit him.

For a moment, he could barely think, but quickly began compounding his stores of electrum, which enabled him to mount enough determination to barely resist the presence in the stone. So, it was indeed some Splinter of Ruin. That explained why he hadn't been able to sense Detrare earlier, as the man's life sense was being consumed, almost merged into this other presence. This would have to be approached differently than planned. Detrare could very well be nearly impossible to kill, as long as that _thing_ was Connected to him. And who knew how many others it was Connected to in the web of Ruin it wove?

Phoenix thought for a moment in the shadows, and came up with a plan. Using ancient, long-forgotten tactics taught to him by ChayShan monks, Phoenix literally walled off a small part of his mind with an impenetrable, yet invisible cognitive barrier. They had told him this could be dangerous, but right now he didn't care. Inside, he put the part of himself that he had come to discover recently, the part capable of doing good in the cosmere, the part who had even earned the trust of an inkspren, and tucked it all in, ready to lock it away at the right moment. Phoenix struggled with the momentary division between the two selves he had created, but finally regained his composure. _Now_.

Phoenix entered the room fully. Detrare looked up at the sound and turned to look at him. Phoenix stared back calmly, inflecting his voice in such a way as to make it unrecognizable to his former pupil. "Hello, friend, things aren't faring so well for you, now are they? You know, I almost regret killing Lenali. She was such a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, her logic was flawed."

**Fire:** Detrare heard the footsteps, and looked up at the man who had entered the room. Elantrian. Phoenix.

Detrare didn't care. How could a cold, callous man such as this possibly understand the agony he was in right now? Had he ever had so many of his loved ones taken from him at once? Did he ever know what true Devotion was, what true Passion was? Had he ever cared for anyone the way Detrare did? Had he ever found true Passion? No, Detrare knew this man who called himself Phoenix to be nothing but a scholar who cared about logic. After all, he had studied all potential threats to the Fulfillment, and one as powerful as him was ranked among them. Not so dangerous as Cole, Ironeyes, or the Sovereign, but even so. A man who knew nothing of Passion.

"Hello, friend," the man said. "Things aren't faring so well for you, now are they? You know, I almost regret killing Lenali. She was such a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, her logic was flawed."

Detrare gritted his teeth. "Logic?" he spat. "You really think this is about logic?" He scrambled to his feet, staring Phoenix in the eyes. He had just lost his son, and now this man thought to taunt him in his woes. Despicable. "What logic prompted you and this band of so-called Knights to barge into my home and the home of my comrades and slaughter the lot of us on the eve of our journey to do God's will? Did you ever even think that we might be doing as God wished? Has it never occurred to you that you were 'on the wrong side', so to speak? You know nothing of this!" Detrare snarled, wishing he had some weapon with him now to remove Phoenix's head with and crush it under his foot. "You know nothing of pain, of sacrifice. _You have no idea what you have done to me_!"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix sniffed. "God's will, you say? Of whom do you speak? No one hears directly from the God Beyond. Adonalsium is Shattered. And the remnants of that one are no gods at all, but cosmic beings fighting their own interplanetary battles in which we are all but pawns. So whose pawn are you, if I may be so bold?"

**Fire:** Detrare just shook his head. "You have no idea, you don't understand, you can't understand..." Normally, he would have prepared a convincing argument. But now, in the throes of his grief over Bloodbath, it was hard to think. "You say 'pawn'. I would consider myself...as a prophet of not one, but three gods, who seeks to lead the people he loves to greatness in doing the greatest work in the cosmere - Fulfilling God's will. Even though it comes at great personal cost." He stared at Phoenix, storing a bit more speed in his steelminds as he stood in place. The man seemed...familiar, somehow. He didn't look or sound like anyone he knew.

But his posture...the way he held himself, the way he spoke. That haughty arrogance...it reminded him of someone he knew. Someone who, like Samar, was once a part of this great work. "Would you say," he said slowly, "that doing the will of God is the greatest work possible? You see the Shards not as gods, but I know them to be so. A piece of God, even a small fraction of a sliver of him, is still a part of God, and therefore is God. But you would let your logic and twisted sense of morality delude you into looking at everything as a science."

Wait...he stopped storing speed and held up his hand to keep Phoenix from speaking again as he thought. He had referred to one of Detrare's own Radiant comrades by name. How would he have known Lenali? The cold logic...the disregard for human life that made one so effective at Hemalurgy as a process...the scientific method perspective that led him to focus on the practical matters rather than the Spiritual ones...the familiarity with those among the ranks of the Fulfillment who had been there for hundreds of years...could it be?

Detrare cocked his head. "But of course, you never wanted to believe such truth, did you, my friend? You acted out of a sense of curiosity with Hemalurgy, as we all did, but instead of leading you to God, you let your actions taint you with a sense of morality that is irrelevant to the grand scheme of the universe." Despite it all, he couldn't help but smirk and chuckle just a bit. Unbelievable. Another lost child had come home. Among all the heartache and torture of the day, there were a few peculiar surprises here and there as well. "I do so wish you had remained on God's side instead of your own...Saodin."

**Phoenix:** At being found out as Saodin, Phoenix's facade broke. "You...you know _nothing_. I am slave to no one, neither man nor Shard, and certainly not this petty _Splinter _you serve." Phoenix raged, gesturing to the gemstone on the floor. "You _betrayed_ me, you who I put all my confidence in, shared my deepest secrets with. You were my right-hand man. We were learning so much, and you threw it all way because of your lust for more, for power. And for what, to destroy the cosmere in the end? This is folly, plain and simple."

**Fire:** Detrare just shook his head again. "There's the Passion you've been missing. Where was that before? Why didn't you have it back when we worked together? And yes, I mean together. You and your prideful assumptions that I worked _for _you. Which of us was the one who actually did anything with what we learned? You just wanted to document results for studying purposes. _I _was the one who actually put that Hemalurgy to its intended use! And you would still dare to think that _you _were _my _master?

You ask why I would attempt such folly as to destroy the cosmere? Yes, old friend, that is exactly what I intend, for that is what God wants! It is a necessity! Few others are willing to acknowledge it, but we of the Fulfillment see the truth. Hemalurgy is of Ruin, and has the greatest potential influence on the cosmere. Therefore, Ruin is of greatest influence and importance! Sure, you would call it a foolish attempt to obey the whims of a cosmic being with no qualifications for deityhood, but I do not follow the Vessels! Or else I would be blindy serving Harmony now, the man named Sazed who holds the powers. No! Not him! Not the previous holder either! I don't follow the whims of the minds behind such Shards. I adhere to the Intents of the Shards themselves. Ruin, Passion, Devotion.

Look at yourself! You are an Elantrian! You would have made the perfect Exemplar of Devotion - you get your power from one of the very Shards we serve! And yet you would work against what we have been working toward? Why? Why deny God and choose your own sense of judgement instead?" Detrare raised his voice, yelling at Phoenix before he could speak again. "And let me ask you this - where did you get your power? If I recall correctly, the Saodin I knew was never a Fullborn! No way to accomplish that other than through Hemalurgy! And I have no doubt that you used some form of manipulation of the Dor to remove your spikes and keep their power, didn't you? You continued to use Hemalurgy on your own without me, giving yourself power! And you would put me at fault?"

The anger lashed out of him with grief still fresh in his mind. He didn't have time for inane jabber! The Fulfillment was collapsing around him; he needed to act, not stay behind and chat. But if he could at least convince Phoenix - Saodin - to join with him again and abandon his foolish practices, maybe he could use this as a great asset to the Fulfillment. The loyalty of one as powerful as him could do a small part to make up for what they had lost, even if they could never replace Bloodbath. Nothing could replace the death of part of one's own soul. But Detrare would at least do his part in dealing with Saodin, even if he hated to waste precious time.

He jabbed a finger at him and seethed, "Let's compare one another, shall we? For over two hundred years, I only ever had three spikes within me. Within the past week, I gained a few more. Nothing too spectacular. Just enough to let me do my part in the Fulfillment. Everything else, I gave to my comrades. Every person we killed with Hemalurgy, we used to give the power to another one of our own! How many people have you killed just to give power to yourself? I use Ruin's art to give power to other people to Fulfill Ruin's will! And what have you used it for, other than yourself?" Detrare stepped toward him, splaying out his arms. "And _you _would call me the monster here? Does your fragile sense of morality tell you _that_?"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix stood, taking the arguments, not knowing what to say. He knew there must be flawed logic somewhere, but he was becoming worn down mentally, probably due to some influence of the Splinter. "The...last two...were dead anyway! And not...not _all_ of them were through Hemalurgy! There are other...ways...ways now that don't require bloodshed! Besides, I use my abilities to further causes that will help _save_ the Cosmere, not _Ruin_ it! Not everyone can be trusted with this level of power!"

That last argument was weak, and Phoenix knew it. Even if it was technically correct - he _had_ murdered before, just to gain new powers. Had Detrare somehow found out information about him from the time he was on Nalthis? No years of penance would account for what he had done. Was he really just a monster then? "I...am not a monster..." Phoenix couldn't finish the sentence. Stumbling, he quickly tried to continue. "Clearly, _you_ are the monster here! Stop deflecting the conversation!"

**Fire:** "Oh, _I _am?!" Detrare roared. "Because I obey God's will? What causes you to call me a monster, your morals? That - they -" Detrare waved his hands in the air in frustration. "Bah! Morality has nothing to do with it! This isn't about what's right or wrong! This is about what is _necessary_!

I understand why you would see me as a horrible, bloodthirsty monster, just like all the rest of your Knights, I truly do! But I am only doing my part in Fulfilling the Intent of God, of Adonalsium, of his three Shards we have the greatest connection to! I do what must be done because others don't have the vision to see it as necessity. They just see it as blind, meaningless destruction. You all don't understand that all these things _must _come to pass!

The cosmere must end, and it is eventually going to, no matter what any of us do. I am helping it reach that ending because the one currently holding the power of Ruin would be content to do nothing! Harmony is just impotent, and in more ways than one, I would say!" Detrare unexpectedly barked out a laugh at saying that. It was always one of his favorite condemnations of Harmony.

"We all have Passion, and we are wasting our lives if we do not Fulfill that Passion, letting ourselves go free and embracing the savagery and emotion within us that is our own humanity. Because if all things will end, we might as well life our lives to the fullest before the end comes! Life before death, as the Radiants would say, is that correct? As I said, _necessity_."

Detrare's face darkened as he thought of Bloodbath again. "And love. _Loyalty_. Devotion to a cause and to other people. You can't say that isn't a necessity, even if someone like you has no love or loyalty to anyone but yourself. You, who gain your Elantrian power from the power of Devotion herself! For what greatness can one accomplish on one's own compared to when hundreds come together with a common Devotion to one another and the cause they believe in?

We, as people, are meant to have Passion, we are meant to love each other with a pure Devotion. Which is why when the people I care about, when my _own children_, are ripped away from me and slaughtered simply for obeying God, it tears my soul to shreds and ravages me with the pain that only a father can feel at the loss of his beloved child. These are things you have lost. Things that mean nothing to you now. Things you have no care toward. You use so much godly power, yet ignore the very gods you got them from.

You got your power through the Shaod as an Elantrian from _Devotion_. You gave yourself Allomancy and Feruchemy through Hemalurgy, the Metallic Art of _Ruin_. Why do you let yourself go astray? Why do you let your fallible morals and sense of logic turn you away from God, and from the organization that _you _helped to create? Morality is a fragile human construct. Morals tell us what we think are right and wrong, but they don't tell us what is necessary."

He pointed at Saodin, hand shaking as he tried not to scream in frustration. "You now have a chance to fix your mistakes, stop letting morals cloud the truth from you, and embrace Passion, Devotion, and Ruin. Stop fighting the organization you started and come back to it. Find the truth once again and help us Fulfill God's will. Or you will be Ruined just like everyone else in our way who denies the truth." Saodin didn't give him a response. Good. He was thinking about it. Detrare didn't want to have to kill his old friend when he could be brought back to the light, but at the same time, he would love to Ruin him for what he'd been doing against the Fulfillment the past few years.

"You've lived for how long, Saodin?" Detrare asked, stepping forward again. He was getting closer to the gemstone now as well. "Nine hundred years, is it? Three times as long as I have. Surely, after all this time, you should understand that things must end. You've watched people die, even caused those deaths, seen structures and societies crumble away after the passage of time. This is the way of things. This is necessary. That's why the concepts of right and wrong are irrelevant. They don't keep things from ending. Join with me once again, and we will do our part in bringing the cosmere to its rest." He reached down and picked up the glimmering stone, not breaking eye contact with Phoenix.

"Within this gem is an infinitesimally small portion of Ruin that exists separate from the Shard, uninfluenced by the will of a person controlling it. It is destruction given a mind of its own instead. It is a more pure form of Ruin than any I have ever known, which is why I know the truth. It has revealed this truth to me. Surely, after living long enough, you want an end as well, don't you? Why won't you let the truth - that this end is necessary for us all - pierce through your judgement?

Just embrace the truth that should already be evident to you - everything must end. Stop letting logical morals cloud your mind and give into your Passion. That will bring you true joy. Find a greater cause to Devote yourself to. Put simply: join us in our glorious work, or be destroyed. Your choice."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix stood transfixed, staring as Detrare picked up the gemstone from the floor. He clicked shut the portion of his mind he had planned to block out, as he knew he was close to a breaking point. Then Phoenix began to crack. "You...are right that I have pushed others away, to ensure that I never get too close. I have done this for my own protection, you know. There are so many who would take advantage of my knowledge and abilities."

Phoenix could feel the gemstone's influence on him more tangibly now, seeping into the cracks as his mind slowly began to break, slowly replacing thoughts, logic and frameworks he had built up so carefully over the years. "But..." he stammered, lowering his head, "as a result, I have not truly appreciated loyalty, friendship, even...love...for a very, very long time. As an immortal, I would simply outlive them, forced to watch those I cared about grow old and die. So I have not allowed myself to grow close. But if there were truly...an end, to just know that an end _does_ exist at some point...then yes, perhaps I could allow myself to open up to some of these things again, to these things of Passion, as you say."

Now he could feel the force of Ruin, Passion and Devotion stirring through his mind, bringing an almost reckless desire to see these things brought about. He could almost literally feel his mind being remade. "Yes. A life with no end is no life at all. Therefore logically, a cosmere with no end is no cosmere worth living in, but the time remaining we _do_ have can be lived to its fullest. I do believe I can Devote myself to this cause."

**Fire:** Detrare forced himself to smile, then rested a hand on Saodin's shoulder. "I'm glad you are willing to see the truth, old friend. I am sorry I had to betray you so long ago, but it was necessary because of the path you took. Now we can work together again to do what Hemalurgy was truly meant for. Come, we have much to do, and our schedule has been greatly disrupted. Hopefully, Samar can be brought back to the light before we are forced to kill her as well."

He walked forward, motioning for Saodin to follow him. It was a good thing he had arrived when he did. Otherwise, Detrare would still have been weeping on the ground. He still wanted to. But the time for grief would have to come later now. For he now remembered something else he needed to finish, just to be sure. He would find confirmation of it in his office. "I have no doubt you have been in my office already, but now we're going to return there," he said, lifting a torch off the wall with his free hand. "We need to find out where Cole's children are."

Aloo dumped Rathil unceremoniously to the floor. Rathil groaned, blinking as he looked up at the ceiling. What was this all about? "Where are we?" he mumbled.

"Where we will wait," Aloo said simply.

Rathil tried sitting up, lifting himself with his one remaining arm. The pain of all the wounds was practically dulled away by now. He was familiar enough with pain that after long enough, he was just numb to it. He looked over at Aloo, who _shrunk down_ from his enormously muscular physique to a more ordinary build as he propped up the huge sword next to him. Storming Feruchemists. And that storming sword. Impossibly big for any normal man to wield, and with a thick enough hilt that knives could fit _inside_ it? The weapon was beautiful, made by a master smith.

Which made Rathil worry increasingly worried that what he suspected was true. That Requiem was now part of this blasted Inquisition. The hesitation of that realization had practically cost Rathil his life. Now he was subject to whatever this Aloo fellow wanted, assuming he didn't just bleed out on the ground. The wounds were everywhere, but worst where his arm had been cut off. "Why did you bring me here?" he asked, sitting up and looking at Aloo. He couldn't get up and fight him now, so at least he could find out why he was here.

"You have Passion," Aloo said emotionlessly. "You could potentially make a good recruit for us."

Rathil barked out a laugh. "You think I'd ever join you monsters? Besides, why would you want me after all I've done? Just kill me now!"

Aloo gripped the hilt of the sword a little more tightly, but his face still betrayed no expression. "I could. I want to. But I want to see if you can be brought to our side first. If not, I will gladly cleave you to pieces."

Rathil just chuckled. "I thought you wanted to destroy everything. Why would you want me to join you?"

"The more there are who join us in the Fulfillment, the more Ruin we are able to maximize."

"And what if everyone you find wants to join you? Who will you kill then?"

Aloo hesitated, then said, "Then we would all burn everything else that lives and does not live to ash and dust until everything around us is destroyed. Also, if those who joined us were truly Devoted enough, they would be willing to sacrifice themselves to give the rest of us greater power. People would still die for our cause."

"Then what?" Rathil asked. His head was getting fuzzy. He was losing too much blood. "Once you've burned the whole universe to the ground and all that's left is everyone who's part of your New Inquisition…what will you…destroy next? Will you all just start killing each other to make more Ruin?"

Aloo frowned slightly, then said, "I suppose…"

"Doesn't sound very Devoted to me," Rathil mumbled, holding his hand over his bleeding shoulder.

A small growl arose from Aloo, and he stepped toward Rathil. "Stop talking. Don't question. Wait here. If you bleed out, so be it, but remember that I will still gladly kill you."

Rathil let out a small smile, then toppled to his side. This Aloo fellow was afraid to think about the future. He didn't like thinking of hard questions. All that brawn, and so little brain to go with it. Not that Rathil was a smart man. He knew his street smarts, at least, but he wasn't some big thinker or scholar. But that didn't matter now. Who he was didn't matter. He was going to die. That much was certain.

They waited a few more minutes before someone entered the room. Rathil didn't recognize the man, but he knew right away from the tattoos and bald head that this man was an obligator in the Steel Ministry, formerly or presently. But he seemed to be the leader around here, from the way he held himself. The big glowing reddish-purple gemstone in one hand clued into that as well. He was also holding a torch. And he looked like he'd been crying for some reason. Wuss. What, did one of his pet Inquisitors die or something?

Another man followed him in. Him Rathil recognized. Phoenix. Traitor. "*******!" Rathil instantly spat at him. "You're one of them now, eh? Wasn't that such a smart choice?"

**Phoenix:** Saodin looked over at his former companion. "Ah, so much Passion from this one! And you should be saying, that I am one of them once _again_. You see, Detrare and I just had a bit of a misunderstanding for a few centuries, didn't we, old friend? There are no hard feelings now. Unfortunately, it is you who is on the wrong side of things. The Fulfillment of the New Inquisition must come to pass, and I am here to help ensure that it happens! I presume they have not killed you already because they see your potential for Ruin.

Yes, you would make an excellent addition to our ranks, if you could just see the error of your ways as I have! I have come home to my roots. Therefore, I have shed the title of Phoenix, as it is just a representation of something that means nothing to me now. You may now call me Saodin, master of Hemalurgy, second only to old Ironeyes in technique. And I co-founded this group that is now known as the New Inquisition."

**Fire:** Rathil stared in horror at this maniac. He'd just turned against the Vindicators, just like that? Who was this monster? Was this really the same man who had shown a semblance of kindness to Rathil earlier tonight? He barked out a disbelieving laugh. "Are you insane? Whatever happened to 'you're no longer that man, you're becoming something greater'? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was you who said that! Fighting for your ideals? And now you just..." Wait. Co-founder? Rathil narrowed his eyes. "Phoenix, what are you saying?"

Detrare wasn't going to deal with this jabbering, from Phoenix or from this man. He waved the hand holding the torch dismissively. "This is one of those Knights who attacked us," he snarled. "Why hasn't he been killed already? Aloo, why have you brought him here?"

Aloo bowed his head subserviently. "I only wondered if you had any interest in recruiting him instead. He does have much Passion, as...Saodin has pointed out." He looked over at Saodin with confusion in his eyes. He didn't recognize him.

**Phoenix:** Saodin replied, "Oh, but I _am_ fighting for my ideals. I have just realized recently that I had been fighting for the wrong ones. The true ideals are those represented by the Shards themselves, Devotion, Passion, Ruin. _These_ are causes worth fighting for. 'Phoenix' was so caught up in 'atoning for his past sins' that he lost sight of what Hemalurgy had to offer to the cosmere. It offers hope. A means to a true end that is necessary, _longed_ for even by all who exist. A little bloodshed here and there is worth ensuring that the greater goal comes to pass. And what do you fight for? Do you even have a cause right now?"

Phoenix walked over to where Detrare and the other man were talking. "Detrare, we must try to persuade this one to join our cause; it would be such a waste to simply kill him. Yes, he has killed many of our family. But just think of the Ruin he will be able to enact were he to use that same Passion fighting with us in the Fulfillment! Also, he is an _atium_ Misting! Think of the potential, the _possibilities_, especially if we enhance him! Surely there are Hemalurgic spikes from our martyrs killed in the recent battle that have some charge left in them."

**Fire:** Detrare stopped at that. _Atium_? Aloo bowed. "I do not question your will, my lord, my Devotion is pure. I simply wondered if..."

"I understand, Aloo," Detrare said absently. He turned to the man bleeding on the ground. "Ah...Rathil, is it? An atium Misting? I've never really met any Seers in my life, and I didn't know too much of their existence before all the atium was gone. But if what my sources say of you is true...then you're more than just a _Misting_..."

With someone who had been burning the metal so long, then their soul must be closely attuned to the nature of Ruin. The perfect candidate for being made into an Exemplar of Ruin. He was already Ruinous and Passionate enough. This man just needed the right Devotion. He crouched on the ground, looking the madman in the eyes. "Perhaps you do have great potential. You would just need to be broken down until you are ready to be Devoted to this cause. You have already caused so much Ruin, but perhaps now you can use that Passion for a greater purpose. Yes, perhaps..."

This was unbelievable. The one person Rathil had been relying on to keep their hides out of too much trouble was actually one of the enemies all along. And he _dared _have the _nerve _to suggest that Rathil himself would just go turncoat too?! Never! He didn't care what Phoenix said, what Aloo said, what the obligator holding the torch and gemstone said. Rathil stared right back at the obligator man crouching before him. Detrare, he'd called himself. Rathil didn't care. He was never going to be a part of this, no matter what anyone thought. He was only here to kill them. And he'd much rather end his life than turn it over to them. Then again, he always wanted to end his life.

He stared unwaveringly at Detrare, hazel eyes holding fast to bright blue eyes. When Rathil spoke, his words were choked, forced. But he forced them out anyway. "No...n-never..." he said, voice hoarse. He was getting dizzy. "Never be...one of you monsters. Hate you. All I want is killing you. That is...what...I fight for. What I...believe in."

Detrare narrowed his eyes at him. "Is that so?"

Rathil's head tipped as he felt himself losing consciousness. He shook himself up again. "No! I...hate all of you...I want to...kill...all...Inquis -" he coughed. "Inquisitors." With all the energy he could muster, he forced himself to look back up and smile grimly. "Haven't killed enough yet," he forced out. "Gonna...kill your...little toys." With a bit of satisfaction, he saw rage fill the man's eyes.

No one - _no one_ \- spoke about the Exemplars like that! Detrare felt an immediate rage overcome him at Rathil talking about killing Inquisitors. That wound was still too fresh! Detrare couldn't hold it in any longer. "You know nothing!" he screamed at Rathil, standing up straight. "You don't know how much they meant to me! They are my children!" He kicked Rathil in the stomach, and the man toppled over, coughing up blood. "Someone like you has never cared enough to understand that! You don't know what it's like to love! _What I have lost today!_"

Someone who lacked such care - and would dare insult Detrare like that - did not deserve to live and was nothing but a bother. Seer savant or not, Detrare wanted him _dead_. He swiveled to Aloo. "I want him _broken_, Aloo. Make him _suffer_."

_Last chance_. Rathil forced himself up, a scream tearing out of his throat at he pulled the aluminum-silver knife out of his hidden pocket. He leapt forward and stabbed the dagger deep into Detrare's chest, leaving the it embedded within him as Rathil collapsed to the ground.

Detrare just stood there, looking down at the knife stabbed into his chest. He sniffed at that. _Bother. Aloo should have taken that from him_. He looked back down at Rathil, who was laying on the ground now. "Really? That was your last hope?" Detrare growled in frustration. "Thought you could swipe one of Requiem's knives for one last chance?" He snorted. This man was pathetic. "Aloo, wait," he said as his bodyguard, who had lifted up Rathil and looked ready to tear off his other arm.

"Saodin," he said, turning to his old friend. "You're a Fullborn now, thanks to Hemalurgy, correct? Find a creative way to Ruin this man. Perhaps you could..." he paused for a moment, then smiled mirthlessly as he realized a very biting way to end Rathil. "Make him kill himself." He handed the gemstone to Saodin, then ripped the dagger out of his chest with his free hand.

It looked to be a similar model to Requiem's other knives he'd made, albeit more delicately and finely forged, with an aluminum blade, considering no blue lines pointed to it upon him burning steel. "Stole this from us, eh?" he asked, tossing it to Rathil's crumpled form. The man was still alive, still moving, but still dying. Not good enough. He _needed _to _suffer_ first. He deserved no less. For all Detrare knew, Rathil could have had something to do with Bloodbath dying.

Detrare had something else to check on. He walked up to his desk, reaching under to access the hidden latch. It popped open, and he pulled out the key inside the small hidden drawer. So either Saodin hadn't found it when he'd been snooping, or he'd covered it up. "Also, Saodin, did you find this when you were previously perusing through here?" He needed to be _absolutely sure_ that _no one else _knew the secret. Only he could know where the Terris boys were.

**Phoenix:** "Oh yes, of course," Saodin mentioned absentmindedly, "everyone knows to check for that sort of hidden compartment, although I don't know why you felt the need to hide some unimportant note about having found some Terris kids. Surely you haven't found natural-born full Feruchemists? All the natural ones have been extinct for centuries now, and Harmony made sure of that."

Saodin rubbed the gemstone in his hand that Detrare had tossed him. Yes, he had been trying to get his hands on this...but he couldn't remember why. Perhaps it was to bask in the presence of the Splinter? In the glory that was Ruin? No, his previous self would not have cared for that. No matter. He had been given his first task, a proving, so to speak. And he could use the very essence of the stone to enforce his will! Saodin was almost giddy with excitement. He could barely even remember the time when he actually _cared_ about this traitor. What was his name? Rathil, Detrare said? At any rate, anyone who would call an Exemplar of the Inquisition _toys_ didn't deserve to live anyway.

Back in the days before the official founding of the Inquisition, Saodin had refused Detrare's suggestion that they make the Exemplars, to remake the Inquisitors of old "in the image of the gods", Detrare had said. Detrare had always been much more religious than him, by a long way, but at that time Saodin thought it was taking the study of Hemalurgy too far.

It was the final rift between them that had led to Detrare's betrayal. It was almost as if the man had _known_ Phoenix would reject the idea, and had lined up all of his followers against him that very day. But now that he had rediscovered Passion again, and relished the idea of Ruin with a newfound Devotion...perhaps he had disrespected, underestimated even, what the Shards represented.

True, they weren't gods as Detrare clearly still thought, but they _were_ an integral part of the cosmere that deserved perhaps not worship, but at least a much deeper respect than he had given before. And the Exemplars also represented the perfection of Hemalurgy in practice! He had been so preoccupied with Detrare's so-called _religious_ motives that day that he had allowed himself to be blinded to the beauty in what Detrare was suggesting. But to say that the New Inquisition's Exemplars were mere _toys_, which represented Hemalurgy in all of its perfection, was indeed blasphemy.

Saodin walked back over to Rathil with the gemstone in hand. "Such a shame. You've done so much damage to him. He won't be _able_ to kill himself in such a state. Besides, he won't feel the beauty of the Ruin, the pain in his current state, as he has already been in pain for so long." Saodin took a small cube out of his pouch and smiled. His former self had saved this in case of a dire emergency; it was supposed to rescue another of the Knights.

It was an ettmetal-powered cube that allowed one to direct outward the effects of Allomancy or Feruchemy. Saodin placed it next to Rathil's good arm, and, while touching it, tapped gold and bronze briefly. If he calculated correctly, he had tapped just enough to completely heal that arm and relieve some pain in the rest of his body, as well as restore some energy and sluggishness that had overcome the man. "There, that should do it. No need to go overboard and undo too _much_ Ruin."

Saodin handed Rathil the knife; Rathil growled and swiped at Saodin's face with the blade, the Passion having lit up again in the man's eyes. "My, my, is that the way to treat someone who has just healed you?" he mocked the man. "Show some gratitude!" Saodin looked over at Detrare. "There, you see? His Passion is back. _Now_ he is ready." Saodin downed a vial of metals, then burned duralumin and zinc at the same time, all while drawing on the power of the gemstone. "Now, it's time to _end_ yourself. Take the blade to your heart in the name of Ruin!" _Duralumin seems such a waste at times_, Saodin thought to himself. It used up an entire vial of metals! But this was no time to be stingy; it was time to revel in the Passion of Ruin! "It's time to end yourself. Take the blade to your heart in the name of Ruin!" Saodin repeated. He could feel himself soaking in the power of Ruin, almost like breathing in Stormlight, giving him extra power.

"It's time to _end_ yourself. Take the blade to your heart in the name of Ruin!" Saodin said one last time, studying the man. He could almost sense the inward struggle in Rathil now. Saodin stepped back and walked back over to Detrare. "Now, it's time to wait and see! You know, old friend, I almost hope that he _does_ somehow resist, just to create more of a challenge!"

**Fire:** Detrare ignored the rest of them as he used the key to unlock the hidden drawer in the cabinet across the room. Within it was a sheaf of paper and a quill. A spanreed quill, specifically. The ruby in its pommel was twisted to the permanent setting of being controlled by the quill on the other end of the line, so Detrare could know where they were the moment they got there. The quill he had given to the leader of the men who were sent to capture Corrin and Sazed. Saodin couldn't understand their importance. Just because they weren't full Feruchemists didn't mean they weren't vitally important to Detrare.

One word was written on the paper. Detrare looked at it for a moment, memorized it right away as a familiar location, then picked up the paper. He whispered the name to himself, absently wishing he had given himself the Feruchemical attribute of copper. That would have to come later. He raised the paper to the torch and lit up the word in smoke, burning the word first and letting the rest of the paper burn with it as he set it on the ground. Now he had complete control over Cole as well as Saodin. Sam would hopefully come next. Rathil and the other Knights would all die before this night was over. Elendel would follow the morning after.

**Phoenix:** Saodin became temporarily distracted as the gemstone vibrated slightly in his hand. He reached out to the essence of the Splinter, and noticed that one of the stronger Connections to it had just faded. He also noticed that the overall sense of Devotion emanating from the rest of the Connections was substantially lower now. And then suddenly, and very oddly, he _saw_ in the gemstone the form of Wilberforce's oddly-shaped winged creature, overlooking what looked like a large battlefield filled with corpses of the Inquisition, somewhere else in the Cognitive Realm away from the fortress. The gemstone wasn't supposed to work like that, right? But his former friend _did_ have an odd spren.

The creature made a face at Saodin through the gemstone that screamed betrayal. Somehow, the creature was utilizing the former Connection of some recently killed member of the Inquisition. Panicking, Saodin dropped the gemstone to the ground, not knowing what else the unique Cognitive Shadow was capable of. He also don't know if the spren was acting on its own or through Wilberforce. Fortunately, the gem darkened immediately as Saodin dropped it. At the action, Detrare looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. Saodin quickly recovered himself and retrieved the darkened stone.

"Sorry, old friend, I was just momentarily shocked. You don't normally see _images _in the jewel, do you? That seems rather odd to me for a Splinter of Ruin. It looked like a battlefield where the New Inquisition suffered many casualties, but in the Cognitive Realm far from here, along with a strange spren that I know to be of the enemy. Did you send out a group of the Fulfillment to go attack one of the other planets, perhaps? If so, it appears that they unfortunately did not reach their intended destination. The good news is, I _did_ see one of the Knights slain on the battlefield. It was the lawman from Northern Scadrial who joined recently."

**Fire:** Detrare frowned at the mention of images appearing in the form of the stone. "Images? No..." Then what Saodin said fully registered to him. He forgot the strange instance of the gem's behavior as he realized that Saodin had mentioned one of the groups sent out. "No, no, no, no..." he whispered, fearing the worst. _Not Eheron. Not Kezeras. Whichever of them it was, don't let it be so. At least _they _have to have escaped. _

Detrare shoved those thoughts aside. They would be addressed later. He had suffered enough heartbreak already; he was not going to fall into that pit of despair once again. "I don't want to hear about _casualties_," he snarled to Saodin, voice shaking. "We will deal with those later." He set the still-burning torch on top of the cabinet.

Rathil felt a brief bit of Soothing as some of his minor wounds reknit, then groaned as the urge to kill himself was thrust upon him, driven through him and drilling deep into his soul. _Not again…_It was happening again. This was no new experience. The crushing weight of failure, the feeling that the cosmere would just be better out without his blight upon it, the knowledge that he was a rotten, pathetic, miserable little bit of nothingness that amounted to nothing. This was something he experienced every day, a familiar knowledge that had encompassed all the centuries of his life and made him wonder what was still keeping him alive outside of a base instinct for survival.

This crushing mass of misery, self-loathing, and inner darkness was his one and only constant companion through all the days of his life. That pit of shadows was his oldest, closest friend, something he hadn't been a stranger to since before he was nine years old. But now it was magnified tenfold, a hundredfold, infinity upon infinity. He was so shocked by the amazingly powerful urge to kill himself and rid the universe of his insignificant, worthless being that he was surprised he hadn't slit his own throat yet. The words of Phoenix, the bloody traitor, echoed through his head: "It's time to end yourself. Take the blade to your heart in the name of Ruin!"

_No!_ Rathil tried telling himself. _Don't kill yourself..._and before he could finish those small notions of denial, they instantly became thoughts of: _No, not in the name of Ruin. I'm killing myself for me, not for that. You can't make me kill me. I'm already going to. _"Shut up!" he screamed at Phoenix, eyes clenched shut as his remaining hand clenched around the hilt of the dagger. _Kill yourself. _All he could see was darkness. Because it was all he knew. And now he was drowning in it.

This darkness was strangling him, killing him. And he knew because _he_ was that darkness, about to stab himself and finish drowning in the shadows, in the blood, in the pain. Thinking about that brought back the voices. The screaming and begging of everyone he had ever known, everyone he'd lost, everyone he'd killed, everyone who'd died because of him, all echoing through his head once again. Just like in the nightmares. They were screaming in hate. They hated him for leaving them, yet...at the same time, they wanted him to join them. The dozens of voices echoed their pleas, begging him to join them in death. The actual voices of Detrare and Phoenix thrummed around him, but were drowned out by the agonized wails of the people screaming in the shadows. _Kill yourself. _

Not for the first time, he wondered if he would meet his lost families once again if he died. Was there more to this existence than the end right before him? Was there more Beyond this miserable state of being? No. There was nothing, no God Beyond or afterlife. If there was a God, a _real_ God, it wouldn't have allowed all this. It would have been able to stop all this madness, all this pain. How could there be a God Beyond when there was so much darkness? If there was a God, more than just these _Shards_…then it would be able to save Rathil from himself. But no. This was the end.

What was even hoping to accomplish? What difference had he made? He was trying to kill maniacal murderers, but wasn't he just like them in that regard? _Kill yourself. _Rathil was nothing but a failure. All he'd ever done was fail people. Failure. Failure. Failure. The memories of the failures came rushing to the forefront of his mind as the desire for death overcame him. His very life was flashing before his eyes as it drowned away in the darkness that was his soul.

He watched his family die at the age of nine, cowering in the shadows instead of being with them in their last seconds of life before those Inquisitors butchered all of them. Failure. He watched his friends be run through with flying coins by another Inquisitor and collapsing in the drowning ash right in front of his eyes just when they were ready to give up anyway, followed by that same spike-headed monster torturing him to get the last of his atium. The atium he'd given up, just like he'd given up the last few people he knew, the people he couldn't have saved no matter what. _Failure_. He watched as all of his thieving crew caught up in that Herdazian rebel army were casually mowed down by the Blackthorn and his Alethi troops, leaving Rathil to flee from the battle like the bloody coward he was. _FAILURE_.

He was just a failure, a coward, a criminal, a killer, a lost cause, a discarded wanderer. He knew all this already, but the reminders were thrumming through his head tenfold. Because of that, the urge to kill himself with the knife in his hand demanded he stab it into his chest, slit his own throat, disembowel himself, all of them at once, everything of the most painful, wretched death imaginable that he deserved. He'd been able to block out those urges with this knife, at least. The one Requiem had made for him.

Requiem…who Detrare all but confirmed was part of these madmen. And it was because of Rathil. He had been the one to lead his friend Requiem Carlton off of Threnody to find a better life for both of them. And Req had ended up with this lot, gaining immortality like Rathil and becoming the lead crafter of weapons for the New Inquisition. These people where were they were today with all of their weapons because of Rathil. Because he had unknowingly led Req to them. This horrible organization of maniacal killers had him to thank. Was he any different? He was a maniacal killer just like them. Those voices screaming were a reminder of it. He deserved to die as much as the rest of these Inquisition people.

Rathil had told himself he would rather die than become one of them. Maybe Phoenix was right and he was killing himself in the name of Ruin, destroying someone who destroyed. He was serving Ruin whether he wanted to or not. The ultimate failure. He was even going to kill himself for the reasons Phoenix was asking for. The absolute worst way to go out. _No less than I deserve. _Anything more than a painful death was _wrong_. Rathil deserved to die. And now, that needed to happen. Every fiber of his being told him it was time to finally, after centuries of unsuccessful attempts, kill himself. This was the end of it.

_Failure_.

The screams.

_KILL YOURSELF. _

Rathil turned the one knife he had sworn to never use against himself toward his own chest and lowered it.

**Sami:** Sam remained silent. Energy drained out of her body and her posture slumped, knives slipping out of her fingers. Despite all her efforts to shove it low, she had always known. She may have been influenced, but there was no doubting that the impulse had come from a deep-seated impulse inside her. And yet they had been on the same side.

_Every time you destroy something - every person you kill, everything that you burn with your Surgebinding - you are doing the will of Ruin. _She listened dully. Even if she tried to be a good guy, she still ended up helping the enemy anyway. She'd always told herself that she was no less than Tesh - that her followers had nothing but scruples to keep them back - but even though Tesh killed, did Tesh take _enjoyment_ in it? Did she torture and feel satisfaction? _Of course it all comes down to comparison with Tesh. _Sam waited for her inner self to slap her back to sense, but inside there was only a hopeless resignation.

_Even in fighting us, you help us. So there's no way out of it, really. No escape from Ruin. _No escape from Ruin. Her pride in seeing things through to the end - as well as a deep fear of what retribution lay beyond that - had always been what kept her from destroying her spheres and throwing herself off a cliff, but now her pride had shattered along with her failure to do what she thought was right. The little pride and fear she had left was only enough to keep her from driving the dagger into her heart, and she cursed them. People who ended their own lives were cowards, too faint-hearted to face their life any longer - yet Sam was a coward who was too afraid to end her own life.

But it didn't matter. Sam didn't deserve even that. She deserved to suffer, to keep hurting until the last of her Stormlight ran out and she could finally sink into nothingness. She thought of his words, like reaching out, into an upward spiral into as near into oblivion as she thought she could get. To spend the rest of her life killing, ruining, ruining. Never having to think, just killing whoever she was told to kill.

That didn't sound so bad.

**Fire:** I look at all those poor souls in the distance who go to do the work I was given to do, a labor they do willingly out of bloodlust when I only did it because I was told it was my duty. They have made their choice, and now must die. Just as I died. Unfortunately, it is I who must fulfill this grisly mission. Just when I thought I wouldn't go back to this bloodshed, I did. Because Harmony asked it of me. Or rather, demanded it. But if I fail to avoid this, at least I won't fail to make up for my mistakes.

The crowd of acolytes in the distance stands watching me, possibly waiting to see me die or considering whether to come back and finish me off or leave for their destination anyway. No way I can let that happen. Around me, I see broken chain links scattered across the ground. Some of them are my own, broken off from my hook. Others came from Bloodbath's attire. Amongst those are the small metal triangles and coins he'd been flinging around as well. I wouldn't have seen these in the dark of the night if it weren't for the blue outlines my spikes point out to me.

I Pull them all toward me with a gentle tug, considering what my next action will be. The bits of metal fly forward and land in front of me. I scoop them all up in my arms, look back up at the crowd of people, and hold the metal links up, leaning back and looking diagonally skyward above where they are. A pain shoots up my back at the effort, but I grit my teeth and try to ignore it. I flare what remains of my steel and Push the objects outward, watching as they scatter, broken across the barren landscape. Those links that once formed small chains fly away from each other. Like me. I am the chain, once mighty and firm, now broken, _shattered_, and having lost my place, being driven wherever the whims of Harmony Push me.

I look back at the crowd of acolytes, who have finally started running. Away. To their destination. No! I Push on the metal bits harder as they sail up and over, down to where the crowd of fleeing people are. So close...and then my steel runs out.

Rathil felt the knife press into his chest and gasped, tears suddenly coming out of him. He was finally doing it. After all these years, all these lifetimes, he was finally following through with what he'd wanted his whole life. That should have brought satisfaction. Instead, he felt nothing but that magnified misery and self-hate. Those monsters Detrare and Phoenix had been storming clever enough to make himself do this because they _knew he would do it_. They hadn't Rioted some unnatural urge within him or tried forcing him to do something he wouldn't usually do. These dark feelings were already in him, always present. Phoenix was only bringing them back up as a reminder. Unnatural Riotings, Rathil could fight off. But how could you fight yourself? You couldn't put up a fight against the darkness within that overpowered your life and was your closest, dearest friend. Rathil had always tried ignoring that darkness, even when it was clouding his mind completely, but now it was impossible to ignore, because it had become him completely. There was nothing left to do but kill himself.

So why hadn't he done it already? Why hadn't he immediately rammed the knife right into his heart? Was there some sadistic desire in him to prolong the pain as long as he could? Or was he hesitating because...part of him still didn't want to die? That small but firm part of him that had pushed for survival all these hundreds of years even when he longed _so much_ for death? But what did he have to live for now? Before, whenever he'd lost everything, he would wander to the next place and try to find something to begin a new life with again. But there would be no next place to wander to this time. This Inquisition was going to try destroying everything. And he was helpless to stop it. Alone. A failure.

Just as he thought he'd found a purpose again joining these Knights, they all either went turncoat, died, cowered away, or become bloodthirsty maniacs like him. They were all dying. All failing. He wouldn't be able to protect Sam, Tesh, Mahshi…he was unable to do anything for them, even though they deserved more than just death. He wouldn't be able to kill Phoenix or Cole or any of the Inquisitors, or even give that Tarenwel a good beating. He'd failed them all. They only ever saw him as a failure. What would they say to him?

As the knife punctured flesh and started digging through skin and muscle, Rathil gasped in pain again. So alone…so close to death…the screams and crying getting louder…What would the others say if they saw him now? They would encourage it. They knew it was for the better of the universe that the wretched bile that was Rathil wasn't blighting the cosmere's surface.

As I am no longer able to Push, I simply watch as the various bits of metal fly overhead of those people, missing them by a long shot, falling down, down, down to the ground in front of them instead. Just as I had hoped.

The pain was nearly too much now, but it wasn't complete yet. _Why am I fighting it?! I should be dead already! _Rathil screamed, then pulled out the knife and slashed it through his leg, again and again. With each cut, the voice dimmed a little and the pressure lessened, but they were back in full within seconds. Rathil wept as he continued slicing at various parts of his body, each movement weaker than the one before. He was only adding to the many scars already there. Scars that everyone had plainly been able to see. The others...what would they say? What had they said to him before? They would say…

Rathil remembered something. Something Tesh had spoken to him the first time they'd met on that messed-up, awkward day weeks ago. Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. Rathil had heard those words time and time again, but...he'd discarded them. Useless platitudes of Knights Radiant of old. Then he'd seen Radiants himself, doing many crazy and wondrous things, striving to be heroes even though they were broken failures. It was ridiculous to even think of! Yet…Rathil thought of those words. What did they really mean? The knife drew closer to his chest again. _Failure_.

Yes, death was inevitable for everyone. But there was a life that came before it, a life he had lived for so long, maybe even too long. But that life had a few bright moments, dim and short as though they were. And there were still other chances for a future. If not for him, then for others. _Kill yourself. _

"Life…" he whispered softly, "before death…"

_Death. Destruction. Failure. Alone. _

You could still be strong, even in the face of your greatest darkness, fighting it off even as it finally got ahold of your throat and began strangling after reaching for it for centuries. Yes, there were weak moments, but you fought against being weak. It was what had driven Rathil to ignore thoughts of giving up and try to resist suicide in times past. Because it was still possible to be strong.

_KILL YOURSELF. _

"Strength bef-before…" Rathil coughed as he collapsed forward, the knife sliding across his chest and cutting deeply. A fatal wound. Not one that would kill him instantly, but one that would bleed him out along with the other cuts.

**Phoenix:** "Aha!" Saodin exclaimed as Rathil pushed the dagger deep into his chest. He looked over at Detrare and slapped the man on the back. "See, I told you it would work, old friend! Now, it's time to go after the rest of these bothersome Knights! If what you say is true and Cole is indeed under control, then this will be child's play indeed!"

**Fire:** I watch as the various metal coins, links, and objects of death scatter in front of the crowd of bloodthirsty servants of the organization I once served, and before they reach the ground, I tap weight and _Pull_ with all the strength of iron left in me. The myriad of metallic missiles shoot towards me, with the crowd of people in their way. They made their choice. Now Harmony has made me their executioner.

The projectiles of death rip through the crowd at levels of torso, chest, leg, and even head. People scream and collapse to the ground one by one, the bits of metal ripping through them on a relentless journey back to me. My increased weight keeps them coming to me so that even the obstacle of human flesh isn't enough to keep them from mercilessly plowing through the ranks of this fallen cause. They duck, they dodge, they cower, but there is no escape. There is just too much metal running past and through them. That crowd of dozens of people is crumpling to the ground second by second before my eyes. Or rather, where my eyes once were.

I do not relish these deaths. But I do not regret them either. I understand their necessity. I have killed many for a cause I believed in before. The only difference now is the side of the equation I am acting on. I feel little for these deaths, other than a slight twinge of sorrow that these people put themselves on the path that would lead to facing me. No one should make the error of crossing me. For the sake of their lives and my soul.

When all the pieces of metallic death have passed through the crowd, I stop Pulling, my iron near depletion. That lasted only a few seconds. I fall forward onto my hands and knees, dizziness overcoming me. I'm still flaring pewter, but that will only last so long as well. I look back up at the carnage I have just wrought. And see that eight of them still live. Five of them are coming to me, three of them running onward despite injuries. Hopefully, those three won't make it. But the other five have decided they would rather face me and try to finish me off than flee from me. Their mistake.

"Strength…before weak…weakness…" Rathil whispered, groaning and coughing. He could still be strong.

_Failure. Kill yourself. Alone. Kill yourself. _It was a rhythm thrumming through his head. He listened to it, but didn't have the energy to cut himself again. He wanted to shove the thoughts away and scream at Phoenix that he didn't get to control when or how Rathil died, but these weren't just Phoenix's promptings. He was telling himself that as well. Amidst the many voices screaming at him, he heard one call to him. His own voice. _NO. I can still be strong! It doesn't have to end yet! I'm not done yet! _Those words made sense to him now. Everyone died, but what mattered was what they did before death. That could still make a difference. Everyone had their moments of weakness, Rathil more than most, but there were still times they could be strong.

_Failure. Kill yourself. Alone. Kill yourself. _

_NO! _It wasn't about where someone ended up, especially if all roads led to the same place. What mattered was what road one took. Whether they followed roads paved by others or blazed the path themselves. Rathil's choices decided his fate.

Detrare frowned, narrowing his eyes at Rathil. Was he getting back up? _I thought he was going to Ruin himself. Why isn't he dead yet? Is Saodin really driving him to death? _Detrare had been waiting to watch him kill himself rather impatiently, ready to leave and release the koloss right as this intruder was dead.

Was he...muttering something?

Yes, Rathil did want to kill himself. Storms above and below, he _really_ did. But he also wanted to fight these storming *******s and rid the cosmere of them as well. The only thing he hated more than himself, or at least as much, was this Inquisition. And he wasn't going down until he brought them down with him. That was his choice. _That_ was his journey.

_Kill yourse - _

_NO! _

"Journey…" he whispered, pushing himself back up to look back up at Phoenix, gazing right into his eyes with hate and defiance, then to Detrare. "…before destination."


	17. Life Before Ruining The Cosmere, Please

**Phoenix:** Rathil hit the floor with a thud, the life seeming to drain from him. Saodin took a step back, hit with the full force of his betrayal of Rathil so suddenly, and all at once. Saodin could feel himself shaking as he took a second step back. The hate the man had just looked him the eyes with...Saodin was _affected_ by it somehow. Fiercely, feelings of terrible guilt and shame started pouring over him, stemming from some deep place inside. He could even feel tears start to well up. _Fool man! Hold it together! No_, this wasn't right. He had such emotions _under control!_ He had done much worse than this before; why should he feel so _nauseated?_ He could feel himself starting to sweat. He could feel chills tingling up and down his spine and all over his body as the full realization of what he had done began to dawn on him.

_NO! _Saodin _firmly _pushed aside the feelings, attempting to regain his composure. That man, the so-called 'Phoenix', was weak. He could _not_ let himself become that man again! Finally, Saodin started to regain his composure. Methodically, he repressed all such emotions back into the abyss of his mind whence they came. If his '_good self_' wished to lock itself away, then Saodin was more than willing to accommodate that request. May as well dump all these useless emotions of remorse down in there with him. Good riddance!

Saodin finally regained full control of himself. He held himself up straight again and clapped Detrare on the back. "Detrare, my friend, it is done. Now it's time to take care the rest of the Knights. You said something about koloss earlier? I do remember passing by that place earlier, I can transport us directly there." Saodin maintained physical contact with Detrare and started to draw Stormlight from the orbs in his bag for the jump. _Nothing happened._

He opened his bag to find most of his orbs still had about a third of their Stormlight remaining, in addition to the large orb he had acquired from Lenali, which was still glowing almost blindingly bright. Saodin raged inwardly and screamed, "Storming spren! Well, it appears we will have to use more, ahem, _conventional _means of traveling now. No matter. Let's get going."

**Fire:** Detrare held up a finger at Saodin, narrowing his eyes further at the crumpled, dying man on the ground and sneering. "He dies first," he snarled. The spheres were draining? What did that mea -

Rathil gasped as he felt his soul crack open within him and be flooded with Light. What was this? Life, glorious life and Light, filled him as it never had before, sucking out of the room around him and filling his body. He let out a cry of pain, but it was a good pain. The pain of pulling out an undesirable splinter from one's hand. The pain of darkness being forcefully _purged_ from the body by a wonderful, pure _light_. In an instant, he forgot that darkness within and felt himself become...whole. Complete. As if his body and soul had achieved a sudden perfection, cleansed of all that worthless nothingness. He felt himself...grow. He was becoming something more than he'd been before, being filled with a power he hadn't known was possible.

The last time he'd felt this way, the last time he'd felt this _good_, this empowered, was when he'd first Snapped as a teenager trying to commit suicide in the slums of Luthadel. Now he'd Snapped again at another point right after trying to kill himself…but it was a different kind of Snapping. It was what…storms, this was what happened to the _Radiants_! Was he going to be a storming Knight Radiant now?

Rathil burst aglow with a light almost blinding and shoved himself up to his knees, yelling in pain and exultation. There was so much of this light in the room, it was like he couldn't get enough of it. He felt it wash across his body, filling in wounds and reknitting them until they weren't there anymore. All the cuts, the scars, the bruises, the broken ribs…even the scars that hadn't healed before. The ones that had been with him for centuries, the scars he had given himself and refused to heal. For some reason, his soul no longer ignored these. As if the soul of his body desired to be perfected. Too bad he couldn't do the same with his mind, but that was beside the point.

He leapt to his feet, yelling out in a mix of pain, surprise, and exultation. Light. _Power_. Healing. Light swirled around in a vortex where his arm used to be, taking the shape of his arm, and he felt the strange sensation of _feeling_ returning to where it had been before, where it was now missing. It was slow and steady, but he could feel his arm _regrowing_. This was the best feeling he'd ever had. The complete opposite of how he'd felt only moments before. He felt whole, in a way unlike ever before. His body was being perfected, and it seemed as if the torment of his soul was leaving…but he knew it wouldn't stay that way. His mind was still broken; he was still a twisted excuse for a human.

But right now, he was filled with that glorious Light. It drove him to act, to do, to _fight_. And right now, he was _angry_.

"No!" Detrare shouted in fury as the light from all the infused objects in the room, most of all the gemstone containing the Splinter itself, dimmed considerably and the man Rathil burst aglow and began healing. He was drawing power directly from the gemstone, the very same power that kept the Splinter properly contained within it!

"Saodin!" he screamed, panicking. "Get us out of here now!" He ran and grabbed Saodin by the arm, grabbing at the gemstone, then quickly yelled at Aloo, "Kill him! _Now_!"

**Phoenix:** Saodin stood in shock as Stormlight finally _did_ start seeping from the orbs in his sack, but not to him. He followed the path of Stormlight to the crumpled man on the floor, the man Saodin had thought certainly dead, who was now clearly breathing again. The man was literally being resurrected before his very eyes! _How? _He had seen no other spren here. This should _not_ be possible! Saodin did not even realize how long he had been staring, transfixed, at the scene unfolding before his eyes. Before he knew it, the man was getting up to his feet, his wounds nearly healed.

"Saodin!" Detrare screamed, sounding genuinely fearful. "Get us out of here now!"

Finally, Saodin snapped out of his stupor. He did not want to risk facing this newly born Radiant any more than Detrare did, especially since his own spren had seemingly abandoned him at the most inopportune time. He glanced at his satchel. All the spheres were completely dun now, save for a faint glow from the one he had taken from Lenali. So it _was _true; Preston _had_ abandoned him. But why? Lenali'd had no trouble hanging on to her own inkspren while serving the Inquisition. _No, this is not the time to dwell on this! _"I can't Elsecall us out! I don't know what's wrong! But I do concur, we need to move, and _fast_." Saodin downed a vial of metals and threw up a speed bubble around him and Detrare as they left the room. They both ran as fast as their feet would take them, speed bubble or no.

Finally, they arrived at the koloss cages. Saodin stopped to catch his breath and looked over to Detrare. "I suggest we release the koloss next. They'll provide the necessary distraction so we can deal with the remaining Knights. We'll still Ruin the one known as Rathil at a later time, but fighting him in this newly advanced form is not advisable. The others are weak for the most part, but there is a Feruchemist among their ranks named Mahshi who should be taken care of next."

**Fire:** Detrare hunched over, breathing deeply. He'd been tapping nutrition from his bendalloyminds during the running, but he was still overwhelmed by all of this. "This is wrong, this is _wrong_, this is _all wrong, wrong, wrong_!" he screamed in fury. "We need to refill this gemstone right now so we can get the Splinter back under my control, release these koloss and send them to ravage the nearest city _once again_, and get ahold of our Regrowth fabrials to heal up any of our wounded and send them straight to Elendel. Bloodbath's -" He cut off, the fresh and painful reminder flooding back to him again.

He growled and forced out, "The last entourage I sent didn't make it to their destination, and I don't want to think of how the others around here are faring. These blasted Knights couldn't have come at a worse time. Right in the middle of our celebrations and revelry, when we were the _least defended_! Adonalsium curse it all!" He seethed with rage, clenching and unclenching his fists. Then he took another deep breath, stood up straight, and tried to maintain himself. There were moments of necessary sacrifice in which one would need to restrain their Passion for the greater good. This was one of those moments, even though Detrare felt a rage and a fury boiling inside him unlike any he'd known in a long time.

These ****ation-spawned Knights were taking everything from him, and not a single one of them would go unpunished for it. None of them.

Detrare turned to Saodin, anger burning at him as well. "You truly picked the worst time to attack us, old friend. You'll need to pay penance for that. Why couldn't you have come to your senses earlier, before all this unintended madness and heartbreak happened? Yes, Ruin's good, but we of the Fulfillment aren't supposed to be Ruined yet! We need to end this complication _now_ and make sure they all suffer for it. I don't care who we go for next, so long as they are completely and utterly _Ruined_!" With that, he ripped off the loose shirt he'd been wearing under his discarded robe, letting his spikes shine with pride, and pulled the mask out from his pocket. The mask of Adonalsium's face.

"Remember when we found this?" he muttered offhandedly. He _had _originally taken it from Saodin when they'd split so long ago. But that was beside the point. He affixed the mask to his face, ready to proudly bear the face of God over his own as he Fulfilled His will. Then he took the Splinter from Saodin's hands, walked over to a rack of weapons hanging on the wall close to where the koloss cages were, and looked at the weapons. Then he held up the gemstone and whispered into their souls while Rioting them aggressively, "Be free and cause Ruin. All of you together. Destroy." Then, without turning, he Pushed on the special latches in the cages that could only be loosed by Allomantic Pushing or Pulling. Every one of the koloss burst through and ran for their weapons. Detrare grabbed a pair of obsidian axes with one hand, then pushed through the crowd of charging koloss to hand the gem back to Saodin.

As he held an axe in both his hands now, showing his spikes and wearing the mask of Adonalsium, Detrare felt ready to bring the Fulfillment to the entire universe immediately. "This. Ends. _Now_." He strode down the hallway with Saodin trailing behind, feeling the weight of God's mandate on his shoulders with the mask on. It was a reminder to himself and to others about what he was really doing. He was Fulfilling the Intent of the most prevalent and important of Adonalsium's Shards, supported by the furthering of the Intents of two of the other most important ones. For everything led to Ruin. In the end, little would be Preserved, Honor would die from the hearts of living beings, people would lose their Devotion and even their Passion, but everything would be Ruined. That was simply the ways things were. And the reason for which the Fulfillment existed. To help that necessity along. Right now, Detrare had a select few people to think of Fulfilling God's will for, he thought with hate. It was time he faced them directly and stopped letting them kill his children.

He walked past a man of the Fulfillment who leaned up against a wall, struggling for air and bleeding out through the stomach. He just sat there, having given up. Weakling. Coward. They needed to fight _to the death_. In an outlet of rage, Detrare yelled and brutally swung both axes down, splitting the man's head and neck open. "Waste of Ruin, you are," he seethed as the corpse crumpled. Best to put him out of his misery anyway, the poor creature. He continued walking, knowing that was he did was not just a proper punishment, but also an outlet for his rage. "And such is the judgement of your god," he whispered. None of his people gave up on his watch. As their virtual god second only to Ruin, he was responsible for enforcing that will. And right now, he _really_ wanted someone to "enforce that will" upon. Anyone available nearby. Especially those who deserved it.

As that thought crossed his mind, he and Saodin rounded a corner and came face to face with none other than Teshani herself and her brother Mahshi.

**Ene:** _NO. _It's a silent scream, one that I can't erase, because I'm the one screaming.

Slowly, I rise from the pitch of unconsciousness. I don't want to, really, but going any farther will kill me. And Quell asked me to do something for him. The letters; I have to deliver the letters. If I die, then his death and Dawn's mean nothing. Dog died protecting me. They all died fighting. When I go, I will fight too. That is _one_ thing I can keep.

Opening my eyes is the first hurdle, but the hardest. After that, I manage to roll over, then stand. I'm physically unhurt, so once I've made the decision to wake, it's easier than entering my coma in the first place.

I stretch and force myself to look at Dawn - no, at Dawn's body. This is the cost. What I've gained for it is certainly different, but I should remember this loss. I give the Inquisitor a once-over as well, hotly furious with myself for the swiftest of beats before the emotion fades away. It's harder to feel now. I don't remember that from before...but before is before, and now matters more. I have to bring the letters to their recipients. Turning from the Inquisitor, I notice Dawn's Aviar. Poor things. They aided him in his final battle, and it became theirs as well. But at least they fell with someone they loved.

I don't have that option. There is no one living whom I love. I shake my head and move to go when one twitches. Rwendeh, the blue-and-orange kingfisher. She's alive? Someone is alive?

I run to her, then sway uneasily, dreading what must be next. It looks like she has a broken wing. I don't even know how to _begin_ to treat that. But I can't leave her, can I? Leave the one being who has lived in so long? Everyone dies, and it's not all my fault _but it feels like it is_ but it ISN'T. This time was not my fault!

_If I'd been there - would Dawn - _I grit my teeth and stare helplessly at the Aviar.

**Fire:** Requiem ran. _This is crazy_, he thought to himself. _The Fulfillment wasn't supposed to start here _or _so soon. I've got to get out of here. _So he ran. Ran away from all that fighting, all that chaos. No way in heck was he going to wait around to be killed. Because if the attackers were as strong and efficient as they seemed from all the damage they'd done and the number of people they'd killed, Req knew he had no chance against them now. Better join up with the Fulfillment somewhere else that wasn't getting its butt handed to it.

He'd join up with one of the teams leaving now. Yeah, that would work. Detrare had sent expeditions out to other worlds, right? Hopefully they'd get away just fine. Req would join one of them. He wasn't waiting around any longer than he had already. One last stop at his weapons stash to get what he needed, then out to join whoever. Depended on where they were going. Req had only ever been to Scadrial outside of Threnody, so as long as he delayed getting back to that literal Hell to bring the Fulfillment there, the better. Sure, he was Devoted to the cause and stuff, but he was smart enough to know when to run away when the going got tough. It was so he could better prepare for the fight later on, right? That's what he told himself, at least. It was a nice thing to tell himself.

He burst into his smithy room, quickly getting his best double-bladed hatchets, special knives, mallet, everything he'd need packed into his pack, belt, and pockets. "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go," he muttered to himself. Req wasn't much of a fighter. Never had been. He'd always been the weapons maker, not one of the people using them. But it was good to be prepared. He whistled to himself as he booked it out of the room, hurrying after the last party to have left.

**Phoenix:** "_Phoenix?" _A voice spoke into the nothingness. Was he dead? Where was he? Who was that voice? "_Phoenix?" _It sounded vaguely familiar, but he could not focus, could not concentrate. What was this place? "_Phoenix! Are you in there?" _

Slowly, Phoenix started to become self-aware. Whatever this place was, he could not see. He was almost floating. He attempted to respond to the voice. "Where...where am I?"

"_Phoenix! It's me, Preston! We are in your mind...sort of. Whatever he has done to me, I can no longer take physical form. I need your help!" _

"Preston...yes. You're my spren." For some reason, it was hard to think wherever he was. "How did I get here? My thoughts are so foggy..."

"_Phoenix, you put yourself in here. _Try _to remember! You split your personality and locked your good self away in here. Now, why you would do such a thing I cannot fathom. Your other half is evil! You must stop him! He's crafty, and has done something to try to prevent you from ever escaping this place; if you don't find a way out soon, you'll lose yourself, and then he will have complete control! He has allied himself with the Fulfillment, Phoenix!" _

"But how...how did you find me if he locked me away?"

"_I...I'm not sure. I didn't realize right away what you had done, so I accompanied him. But I don't understand why you would do this, Phoenix! He's done so much evil!" _

"It's...the gemstone. It is the greatest threat. If I had not done this, I would risk allowing my full self to become corrupted. I have altered my spiritweb too much over the years by way of Ruin; the Splinter would have immediately sensed that and used it to control me completely! At least this way I could control the part of me that happened to, and have a chance..."

"_But Phoenix, almost immediately we encountered another of the Knights. Rathil. Detrare had you torture him. I tried so hard to get to you, so you could stop him. You were able to partially open your prison, but then he pushed back, somehow, and then I ended up here, trapped also. At first, I thought you were already gone, Phoenix, I could barely sense you!" _

"There...there is a key...I made a key so at the right moment I could escape and regain control. You said the prison became partially open. Can you recall exactly when this occurred?"

"_It was when the Knight looked you into the eye. Phoenix, he felt so betrayed...if you are able to somehow overcome your other half, you'll need to watch out for this one. He lived. And he won't understand, nor will he want to." _

When Rathil had looked him in the eye. Eye contact. The window to the soul, or in this case, to the mind. When Phoenix made his own prison, he knew with certainty that, if Detrare accepted his turn as planned, he would encounter others of the Knights. And they were sure to make eye contact with one they felt was betraying them. But somehow, his other half had weakened him to where he hadn't able to take advantage of this first opening. "Preston, I don't know what my evil half has done to me, but talking like this is good. It's as if I'm finding myself again. I think...maybe I'll have the strength next time...I hope."

Saodin followed Detrare down a hallway, following the man to whatever plan he had in mind next. Hopefully it would be a _good_ plan, not that Saodin had much sway over the man right now if it wasn't. Detrare was raging, likely over their failure with Rathil. Saodin didn't understand the rage entirely; there were plenty of other Knights they could kill.

They rounded a corner and were face to face with Mahshi and Tesh. "Ah! You see, old friend?" Saodin said, "Here we..."

At that moment, Tesh's eyes met his. He could see the shock and confusion in her face at her surprise at seeing him with Detrare. Saodin quickly looked away, but the internal struggle had already begun.

**Tesh:** Detrare. _Phoenix. _Standing beside one another. I meet their eyes in turn. "No," I whisper. "No. You can't be with him! You can't! Phoenix!" I scream his name.

My world begins to melt, then collapses. I begin to die as soon as Detrare steps forward. I feel the pain again. The closeness to death. The distance from living. And the pain. Oh, the pain! But he doesn't even look at me. He looks to my side, to Mahshi. I scream again. Mahshi's name, this time.

**Phoenix:** _NO, NO, NO!_ Saodin screamed inwardly. _I must maintain control!_ Somehow, the other part of him - drained of self-awareness - had found himself again, and was pushing back. "_You're weak! You will never amount to what I am capable of! We would never be as powerful as we are without me! I deserve this body!" _

"_No…" _A faint voice rises to the surface. "_No! You cannot take control, I will not allow it!" _For the briefest of moments, Phoenix regains control, and some of the darkness fades from his eyes. He makes direct eye contact with Tesh. "Tesh, it's me! I know this is confusing, but you have to trust me; I have a plan! It's the Splinter in the gemstone, it has a hold on me, I'm trying to fight it..."

Detrare looked at Phoenix with incredulity, his focus temporarily off of Mahshi. He lifted up the gemstone and reached out to him, which somehow strengthened his other self. At that moment, he could feel his evil self regain control.

Saodin averted his eyes from Tesh, instead looking over at Detrare. "I apologize for my momentary relapse, old friend. Keep that gemstone close, and I _assure_ you that it will not happen again."

**Fire:** Detrare shoved all other thoughts out of his head. He didn't care about what Saodin was up to at this moment; all he felt was an overwhelming, furious, uncontrollable _hate_. A fierce loathing that burned within him stronger than any of his goldminds. Hatred toward Teshani, and to an extent her brother. "You," he seethed at her, struggling to restrain himself for the next few moments to get his point across, "are a monster. All of you are! Do you realize that?" He began storing speed, just a small bit to slow him down and prepare to strike blindingly at the right moment. His words came out a little more slowly as well, but that was sure to get the point across. "Is all this really what you consider the _right _and _honorable _thing to do?" he screamed.

"My organization brings about the death of one of your family members and separates you from one sibling because you got in our way, and in retribution, you bring your own organization barging into my home and kill my entire family?! Is _that _what you consider to be honorable? Is that what you'd consider _just_?! _Is that what you'd consider fair?!" _Detrare stepped slowly toward the wretched little girl, who still stood in fear while her brother stood defensively by her side, ready to fight. Stupid wretched little monsters. "Your Honor has brought pain and suffering greater than you can even understand! Your petty sense of justice has destroyed me, my family, my home, and yet you still call me the monster! _Is that what you want, for justice to be done?! An eye for an eye?!_ _FINE! I'll show you what justice does!_" He stopped storing speed and turned to Mahshi. "You kill my family, I kill yours," he whispered to Tesh menacingly.

With that, he tapped the speed he'd been storing and surged toward the boy, plowing into him and shoving him down the hallway until he was pressed to the wall, pushing the blade of one axe into his chest. Mahshi grunted and tried to fight back, but before he could say or do anything, Detrare furiously buried the other axe deep in his skull. Then yanked it out and slammed it in again. Then ripped out both axes and continued to hack away at Mahshi's head, his neck, his chest over and over and over again. With each pound of an axe, blood sprayed over the front of Detrare and he felt a surge of grim satisfaction, furiously chopping away at the boy's corpse until it there was barely even a recognizable head anymore. Detrare screamed and yelled as he did so, feeling the hate flow out of him and into this pathetic worm's broken body far past the young man's death.

Teshani was still behind him. He needed to see her suffer for this. He spun around and glared at her, eyes wide and teeth bared in a mirthless rictus grin behind the blood-soaked mask. "There's your _Honor _for you," he hissed.

**Tesh:** I watch. I have to. All that was ever mine to have has been taken by these people.

My brother's blood sprays across the hallway, and a manic grin lights up Detrare's face with a dark light. I look down at my clothes, the trousers and shirt splattered with Mahshi's blood. He's gone. "You monster," I sob, staring at my blood spattered hands. "You've killed him! This is the second time you've taken him from me!" I continue to cry. When did I start? I run to Mahshi's mangled corpse. Why? Oh, Almighty, why has this happened? Blood pools around him. I look, and see the life has already gone out of him. He's actually gone!

Detrare watches me with a grin, Phoenix at his side. I thought I saw something...but no. My physical self separates from my mental self, and I watch my body crumple to the ground in my brother's blood, shaking, as my mind clamors for release from the pain. And I feel an intense, deep, fiery red anger toward this...THING who calls himself human. The creature who took my happiness away. I want to kill him. Slowly. Painfully. And watch as he sees me kill all of his creations of Ruin.

But the mind can't do anything without the aid of a body to do its will.

**Phoenix:** Saodin looked on as Detrare went into a rage against the Feruchemist, Mahshi. The boy hadn't even had a chance to put up a fight. _Yes, good,_ Saodin thought. One threat to the Fulfillment removed. But Detrare didn't stop. He kept hacking away at the boy long after his death. Saodin cleared his throat. "Old friend, isn't that quite enough? What is the point in continuing in this rage? I appreciate your Passion, but the Ruin is completed here."

Detrare ignored him, continuing to hack away with his axes until there was barely anything left recognizable of the boy. Finally the madman stopped, backing away and smiling a cruel smile at Tesh. "There's your _Honor _for you," he hissed at the girl. Tesh responded with something, but she was crying so hard at that point her response was nearly unintelligible. "You monster!" was all he could make out as the girl collapsed to lay beside the mangled corpse of her brother.

He contemplated that. Yes, Detrare was a monster, Saodin concluded, but he was also a tool. The Fulfillment needed all of the tools it could get its hands on right now. The Knights had nearly been destroyed at this point, but also at great cost to the leaders of the Fulfillment. He had glanced into the gemstone earlier; only one Exemplar remained. Was Detrare even aware that all of his other creations had been destroyed?

**Tesh:** I lay sobbing for who knows how long. Finally Ani's vice drifts through my head. _Keep fighting. _I stand, trembling, tears streaming down my face. I hold my sword in bloodied hands. My clothes are covered in blood, much of it my own, but even more my brother's. _Mahshi..._Life before death.

"You're taking them all from me," I say. How many have died on this blood-soaked day? I look at not-Phoenix, and see a glint of himself in his eyes. His hands clench, and he stares right back. "Please," I whisper. "Fight it." My only hope.

**Phoenix:** Saodin stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him, pondering to himself. Yes, the man was a useful tool, but this one would be a challenge to properly manage. Detrare _did_ tend to get a bit carried away, and was easily distracted from the task at hand. Now, they _had_ killed the next greatest threat the Knights presented in the boy Feruchemist, which was good. But Detrare just stood there gloating over his butchery of the boy, when there were plenty of other foes at large and a threat to the Fulfillment. Rathil was still a grave threat, especially in his present condition, and there were at least four or five others, one of them a Mistborn. But Saodin wouldn't challenge Detrare in his current rage.

Saodin looked back over to the girl, still crying over her brother's corpse. Yes, she was a wreck. There was currently no fight left in her after the demoralizing loss of her brother, but that would change after she processed the loss. She would be vengeful, dangerous even. At least she wouldn't pose any immediate threat...Surprisingly, at that moment, the girl heaved herself back on her feet. Saodin started compounding some extra speed reserves to ready himself for a potential attack.

She turned to look at Detrare. "You're taking them all from me," she managed to get out, her voice almost cracking. Then, before Saodin had a chance to react, she looked him straight in the eye. He clenched his fists, bracing himself for what he knew would come next. _NO, NO, NO! _he screamed inwardly.

"Please," Tesh whispered. "Fight it."

And Saodin _did_ try to fight it. He closed his eyes, focusing inward, but his alter ego was too strong and overcame him.

This time, Phoenix was ready for the window, and used the opportunity to reclaim full control of his faculties, stuffing his evil persona into the place he had just emerged from. _Hopefully that'll hold him_, Phoenix thought to himself. He opened his eyes...to a massacre.

Mahshi was on the ground, completely mangled nearly beyond recognition. Detrare stood over him, gloating. Then he noticed Tesh, on her feet and looking right at him, a look of pleading in her eyes. Detrare had just killed Tesh's brother. It hit him like a punch to the gut. After everything, after all the horrible circumstances she had been through, that Phoenix had _just_ rescued her from, this madman had to go and kill her brother? And that wasn't the worst of it. Phoenix's clothes were completely unscathed. Apparently, his evil persona had joined forces with Detrare, or at the very least been a consenting bystander to this carnage.

Phoenix was horrified. And enraged to an extent he hadn't felt in years, maybe even centuries. He looked Tesh straight into the eye and whispered, just out of Detrare's earshot. "Thank you for releasing me. I apologize for...anything and _everything_ my other self may have done up to now. Now, if I may, I will assist you in avenging your brother's death. Don't worry, I won't be too quick about it."

Phoenix burned nicrosil while compounding pewter, growing to nearly twice his size. He lifted Detrare from behind and shoved him into a nearby wall. Before the madman had a chance to react, Phoenix compounded steel for speed and hit his head into the wall so many times he lost count. Phoenix knew the man would heal, saw him compounding gold, but didn't care. It only made Phoenix want to hit him more. Finally, after a while, Phoenix came to his senses and noticed the gemstone laying on the ground by Detrare. The gemstone. _The reason for all of this_. Phoenix backed away and stopped, slowly starting to release his pewter. Detrare lay temporarily dazed, but he knew the man would eventually heal. Phoenix also noticed Cole laying nearby.

Phoenix looked at Tesh, empathy in his eyes for what she must be going through. "As much as I want to finish him off now, and I really do, it must wait. That gemstone over there is the reason for this man's madness, for _everything!_ It must be dealt with, and now! I'll carry Cole somewhere safe. Go and find the others if you can and regroup. Detrare will come around soon and should _not_ be dealt with alone." Phoenix quickly picked up the gemstone from the ground and pocketed it inside his robe.

**Tesh:** "Phoenix, I...thank you. Again." My voice cracks, but I say it anyway.

I kneel by Mahshi's corpse, still crying gently, and lay my hand on what used to be his head. "Goodbye, Mahshi, brother. Go join Sazin in the Spiritual Realm. I'll join you one day, but not today," I whisper. My tears wash away some small patches of blood. "Thank you. And goodbye." I stand, sheathing my sword. My tears have stopped, but I will never stop crying. This day will stay with me until I die.

I turn and run.

**Phoenix:** As Tesh turns to run, Phoenix calls out to her. "Tesh...thank you. You have saved me today as much I you. Be safe."

Phoenix turned away to consider what to do with Cole. He definitely shouldn't be here in his current state when Detrare recovered soon. Still holding on to some of the compounded pewter from earlier, Phoenix hefted up the Terrisman's unconscious form and carried him down a corridor. After he was a safe distance away, Phoenix looked around for a safe place. Up ahead, there was a locked door with no insert for even a key. Phoenix downed a vial of metals, reached out for any metal that might be in the door's mechanism, and _Pulled_ with iron. The door swung open. Inside the room, Phoenix laid down Cole's form on the ground in a resting position. At that time, he noticed Cole was actually wounded; what could have managed _that_, Phoenix didn't want to even think. In his current state, though he was shallowly breathing, Phoenix wasn't sure if a medallion would be enough, and he only had one left. In addition, his only ettmetal cube was spent, but he was unsure how that was possible, unless his alter-ego..._no_, he didn't want to think about that.

Then he realized he had stumbled upon some sort of supply room. Phoenix noticed weapon racks, nearly full spheres of Stormlight, boxes full of uncharged spikes, and...were those fabrials? Phoenix picked up one that was somehow familiar to him, even though he could not remember ever seeing its like before. It felt warm, and Phoenix almost felt a fresh breath of life at its touch. Could it truly be one of the ancient healing fabrials? Phoenix put it on and held it over Cole, trying to focus its energies over one of his more serious wounds. The fabrial began to glow and hum, and slowly but surely the wound began to mend.

Phoenix proceeded to use the fabrial on Cole's other wounds. The Terrisman began to stir. _Good_, Phoenix thought. He spoke to Cole as he was coming to. Hopefully he'd absorb at least _some_ of what Phoenix had to say - there was no time. "Cole, this is Phoenix. I found you badly wounded and brought you here. The others are gathering somewhere nearby for a final stand against Detrare, and will need your help. Detrare is recovering from his wounds and will surely be looking for the rest of the Knights." _And also me_, he thought to himself. "I must go for a while and run a very vital errand. I must destroy the source of the Inquisition's power and influence." Drawing upon his newfound supply of Stormlight, Phoenix Elsecalled away.

**Cole:** Cole dreamed of the past, those brief years he could pretend he lived normally. Memories of his boys flashed through his head, going back to their births. Then the day he'd met his wife. All the way back to just after he'd left Scadrial. The missing chunk of his life; ten years' worth of memories that he'd chosen to seal away. It had been so long, he had forgotten why. Instead his dream just turned to darkness.

Words pierced through. "Cole, this is Phoenix. I found you badly wounded and brought you here. The others are gathering somewhere nearby for a final stand against Detrare, and will need your help. Detrare is recovering from his wounds and will surely be looking for the rest of the Knights. I must go for a while and run a very vital errand. I must destroy the source of the Inquisition's power and influence."

Not long after his warning, Cole awoke. He wasn't the incarnation of destruction, nor the emotionless hunter he had spent the last decade as. He wasn't quite sure who exactly he was now. All he knew was that he was going to slaughter everyone between him and his children.

**Fire:** I face these last few attackers charging at me, pewter burning like a furnace within me as I'm stuck kneeling on the ground. With a tug of the little iron I have left, I Pull the mangled remains of my hook toward my hand, that familiar heavy weight I've gotten so used to. I'm ready to give them their last fight. Because apparently, Harmony demands it. I guess I must go back to being a killer. But at least I won't go back to serving the cause I was once a part of. I. Won't. Go. Back. I keep telling myself this because it's something to hold onto, even if I don't know if there's any truth to it anymore.

The five of them run at me, rage apparent on their faces. Who were these poor people who gave their minds to this force of destruction that dominates their lives? As I grip my hook, I remember my first blood. The night I found Bryce and the four others and killed them in my first display of power, that night that started it all. Now I face what might be my last blood, once again a gang of five people serving the same evil organization - just like the first time. _The beginning is the end. _The least I can hope is that, unfortunately, this story will end the same way its first chapter did. At least this time, I don't follow up with slaying a priest and a nobleman, then leading a city to burning itself down. I'd rather prevent such a thing from happening. Which I think I now am. It's getting hard to think. My head hurts even more now. Not much longer before I lose consciousness from my injuries. Perhaps I will die of blood loss. Surely Harmony can allow that.

As the first man reaches me, I swing the weighted hook upward. It smashes into his jaw with a resounding crack, and he crumples soundlessly. _One_. As the second one lunges toward me, I fling my arm and toss the hook with a pewter-enhanced throw. It crashes into his leg and snaps his knee inward, and he falls, rolling to the ground with a scream of agony and anger. _Two. Or close enough_. The third man gets closer than the others, swinging a mace toward my skull. As his arm descends, I grab his forearm and pull him down, swinging my fist in a sharp jab toward his neck. The blow snaps his windpipe and possibly his spine as well, and he convulses with gurgling noises as he falls to the ground. _Three_.

The fourth one, a woman with knives in her hands, screams as she stabs downward with both. I reach up and grab her by the wrists, pushing back against her. I would scream in response to her, but I speak only silence now. I squeeze her arms with a pewter-enhanced grip, twisting them outward. Her scream becomes one of pain as the muscles and bones in her wrists are crushed completely, and she drops the knives. I yank her down toward me and give her a strong headbutt that cracks her skull. Her screaming stops before her body hits the ground, yet continues to echo in my head with the others. Such a familiar sound. _Four_.

The fifth one, an older man with a sword, stumbles toward me, a chain link embedded in his shoulder from before. With the last of my iron, I give the sword a small Pull, and it leaps out of the man's grip. He growls and jumps for me with his hands outstretched, as if to strangle me or tear my face off. I try shoving him away, but he shoves into me first and sends me toppling on my back, my shattered legs still bent at an irregular angle beneath me. I should be in agony at such a strain, but I feel nothing in my legs now. He lands on top of me, grappling at my neck; I grab him by the head and roll to the side, slamming it into the ground. Then I slam his head again. And again. And again. He finally stops moving. _Five_. I let go and lay on my back, strength expended and pewter near depletion. _It's done_, I think. _It's finally done. _

I thought too soon. Someone lunges on top of me, growling in anger. What - the second man I felled. I only got him in the leg. He's still alive. The man yells in fury, grabbing at my neck and punching me in the face. My head aches even more. One of his blows lands right on one of my spikes, breaking his knuckles. This only angers him more. I punch upward, hitting him in the gut with an enhanced blow. His breath leaves him and he collapses on me. I roll over on the ground so that I am on top of him. As he tries to recover, I grab him by the neck and squeeze.

A small, almost forgotten part of me wants to shut my eyes to hide from the sight of what I'm doing, but I have no eyes to close. I lost them when that part of me was forgotten. So I must watch. I grip tighter and tighter, and the madman desperately struggles against me. My pewter is nearly out. I've lost blood. I'm...steadily losing consciousness. My grip loosens as I begin to pass out, and the man below me seems to be fighting for consciousness as well. Now we see who gives out first. Unless both of us fade away. Will Harmony allow that? With my last bit of strength, I grip the man's neck even tighter, and I feel something break. The zealot stops struggling. Then the headache overcomes me and all goes dark.

Rathil instinctively leapt to the side and ducked down without looking as the fellow known as Aloo brought up his huge obsidian sword with the knives in its hilt. Storming clumsy weapon. And yet, so beautifully designed. _Req must've gotten better at making weapons of death_, Rathil thought grimly. Requiem. Rathil would have to deal with him later. Now was for Aloo.

Rathil faced the hulking, dark-skinned man, who was actually _frowning_ at him in an unprecedented show of emotion. That tiny curl of the lips…Rathil must've _really_ made him mad. He smiled back; with the light blazing from him, he hoped he was a pretty intimidating sight indeed right now. The light, the glorious _light_. It filled him and drove him to act, to fight, to live. Moments before, he'd been brought to his darkest, feeling so miserable and worthless that he barely had the energy to kill himself, and now it had turned on its axis and brought him to his lightest. Time to put it to good use.

Rathil surged forward, ducking under Aloo's next overhanded swing, sliding under his opponent and somersaulting between his legs, slashing at the back of his left calf. The man fell on one knee with a grunt, then swung behind him with another wide swing. Rathil leaned away from it, but since he was already crouched, he fell onto his back instead. Aloo looked down at him and lifted the enormous sword with swelling muscles, pointing its blade downward. Rathil quickly rolled to the side as the sword drove deep into the stone ground, then leapt to his feet and stabbed his knife deep into Aloo's stomach. The dark-skinned man simply grunted again - he was doing a lot of that - and glared at Rathil in annoyance. Storms, the knife had barely gotten through all that abdominal muscle.

Aloo backhanded Rathil across the face, breaking his jaw and knocking him to the ground. Rathil groaned but ignored the pain as it automatically healed from the beautiful light filling in the wound. Aloo was pulling another glass knife out of the huge sword's hilt. How many storming knives were in that thing? And why was the storming hilt so big in the first place! Rathil leapt toward Aloo, reaching for the knife buried in the man's stomach. As he got close, Aloo promptly rammed the knife down into Rathil's chest, but Rathil tried ignoring the fatal blow, painful as it was, knowing he could just heal from it. Even so, Aloo was shoving him closer to the ground by pushing the knife down into him. Rathil grabbed the hilt of his knife and yanked it out of Aloo's torso, then slashed it upward through the hulking man's throat. Unfortunately, there was a lot of muscle there as well, so it didn't slice through completely. But it was enough to make Aloo gasp and grab at his throat with the hand that was on the sword, and Rathil took advantage of this weakened moment to fall backward and slide the knife out of his chest.

He gasped himself, grabbing at his chest to hold in the blood while it healed up again. He scrambled to his feet, and as Aloo made the move of lunging to him again, he instinctively sidestepped and slashed the knife across Aloo's wrist. This made him unwillingly drop the knife right into Rathil's hand. As Aloo fell forward onto one knee again, growling in another rare display of anger, Rathil ran past behind him, making sure to stab the stained-glass knife into the dark-skinned giant's back and slash the tendons in his leg again with the aluminum-silver knife as he ran by.

_I've got to get out of here_, Rathil thought. _I can't last against him forever. What can I…? _Then he saw the torch still lit on the ground, burning away the last bits of that paper that seemed so important to Detrare. But whatever was written on it was all burned away by now, leaving the embers of the torch with little left to keep them burning. _Right. I can still do this_. Rathil grinned as he hurriedly pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to the flames. He turned around to see Aloo down on his knees with his back to him, his body shrunken down to much thinner and weakly looking state. He was storing his strength, ready to tap in one last burst and make a last-ditch effort to crush his opponent, Rathil assumed.

Now was the chance. Rathil ran forward, slipped the object into Aloo's back pocket, and reached into the hilt of the sword, pulling out the last glass knife in there. Aloo's head shot up and he glared at Rathil. His body swelled up for a moment as he punched Rathil in the face, sending him flying across the room. Rathil landed hard on his back, the pain blinding him. _Storms_, that was a good blow. He scrambled to his feet again, stumbling as he did so. He couldn't stay down. The light in him was driving him to act, to _do_. He looked Aloo square in the eyes, gripping the knives in his hands. "You made a mistake, buddy," he said to him as the dark-skinned man shriveled down, his muscles shrinking again.

"How so?" Aloo responded with gritted teeth and a dead look of zero emotion in his eyes.

"Well, first, you brought me here and made this happen in the first place," Rathil said, grinning. "But then, well, you brought a knife to a knife fight against a guy who's mastered using them his whole life." He stepped to the side, inching toward the doorway of the room. "Plus, I brought a little more than just a knife here, so forgive me for cheating, you dirty crem." He made a rude gesture toward Aloo and booked it out of the room as fast as he could.

Aloo looked toward where the rulo had run out the door, trying to run after him, but the moment he tried standing and putting pressure on his leg, he collapsed again, grunting. The kayana man had sliced him good there. Great potential for Ruin, the rulo had, but he would have to be Ruined himself instead. Aloo had made a mistake today. He growled to himself as the realization sunk in. This problem with the interloper becoming Radiant wouldn't have happened if he hadn't brought the man here. This was his fault. He was a failure. His Devotion had blinded him to commit a foolish action. He would make up for it by making sure this rulo would burn along with all the rest of those Knights.

Aloo scowled and lifted himself up by the sword stabbed into the ground, then prepared to rip it back out, tapping strength. As his body swelled, he felt a pressure in his rear end where his pocket was. _What_? Then he noticed the sizzling noise. He hadn't been paying attention to that. It was coming from…

He turned and looked behind him. At the back pocket of his trousers. Where there was a lit stick of dynamite burning the last embers of its fuse. "Aw, Doloken."

The explosion echoed down the hallway where Rathil stood waiting around the corner, blasting out of the office room. Shards of marble and obsidian shot against the wall through the flame and smoke, along with various large bloody chunks of a human corpse. _****ation, I'm loving these magic red candles,_ Rathil thought with a grin. Now, where to next? The Light in him still filled every inch of his body, driving him to act, to _move_. The tempest was nowhere near depleted, and it filled him with this adrenaline, this _excitement_.

This was the best he'd felt in so long! Rathil whooped and ran down the hallway. He didn't know where he was running to, he just had to move. Anywhere he could bump into other Inquisition goonies and kill them too. Right now, he felt like he could take on Phoenix and kill him himself. Or Cole. Or Detrare. Whatever the case, _storms above_, he felt empowered! He just kept running, as if nothing could stop him, holding his special knife in one hand, one of the glass ones in the other. He ran into the room where Aloo had cut off his arm before, seeing the corpses scattered across it. Had he done all that? Storms, there were so many.

Not enough. Rathil ran to a pair of his obsidian daggers next to each other and quickly pocketed them along with the gold medallion lying nearby. Two medallions now. _Thanks for giving me that, _he thought dirtily at Phoenix. _I'll make sure to kill you quickly, maybe. _He ran out of the room away from where he'd come, but chose not to go down the hallway he'd first taken to get into that room. He needed to go somewhere now. Had to get moving, get _moving_. Needed to kill these monsters before they killed more people who didn't deserve it. Needed to _kill them_.

He continued running down the winding hallway, wondering where it would take him, when he heard shouts from behind him. He slowed and looked over his shoulder. Another angry crowd was following him at a distance, apparently having just seen him. _Here we go again. How about a little chase? _

Rathil turned his head to look in front of him once again, but was too late to notice the large hole in the ground in front of him before he tried to stop running, and he tripped right into the darkness below.

**Tesh:** I run. My leg burns. The break, almost healed, threatens to break anew. "Please," I whisper. "Let me find someone." Ani runs in front of me, leading the way. I don't know where she's going, but I still follow.

We stall in front of a door. I wipe my tears on my worn, dirt-and-blood-stained sleeve. Both hands are exposed, and both grip my blade.

"You are needed in here," Ani says.

I hold my blade pointed up with both hands by the side of my face and kick the door in, using my good leg, to show a figure crying over a corpse. A dead Inquisitor is scattered across the room.

**Ene:** I hear a door open and glance up, uncertain. In the last few minutes I've begun to feel like I'm floating. Floating...in a sea of black beads...with that doomed, desolate sky as the last thing I ever see. Drifting. Falling away…

I stand from Rwendeh's - corpse? No, body. I just don't know what to _do_. I never learned how to care for a bird! I don't know what to do for her wing. For anything. I turn reluctantly to the door, where I see Tesh. Was it really just hours ago that we met, and not days? Not years, years where I did nothing but scream into the beads and fall with nothing to hold on to, nothing? That sky is the last thing I see; it surrounds me, fills me, until all there is _is not_. Until I _am not_.

But I _am_. The beads fade. I'm here. Alive. _I'm_ alive, but -

I look abruptly at Tesh, who doesn't look so great herself. "Hey," I whisper. It seems almost a laughably normal thing to say right now.

**Tesh:** A bird. It is a bird. "Hey," Diona says, looking up. _Almighty._ I just lost my brother. But this person...she's been through more than I can imagine. She's truly broken.

I sheath my sword and walk over to her, laying a hand on her back. "Hi."

**Fire:** Rathil shook his head and groaned, trying to come to his senses. _What..._he looked around. He was in a dark, disturbing-looking empty room, illuminated only by the glow still bursting from his own body. At least that was still there. But where was this? How had he gotten here? Then he remembered falling into this hole. He looked up to a hole in the ceiling way up high, far above where he stood. This was a tall room. How had that hole gotten there?

Rathil looked down to see a doorway into the room at the top of a flight of stairs. So this room was similar to the first one he'd run into. Except this one was empty of people eating and drinking, containing only stone tables, weird etchings in the walls, and bloodstains everywhere. _God Beyond_, Rathil thought_, is _this _where their monsters are made?_ He wrinkled his nose at that, feeling a stronger urge of hate toward this Inquisition. They'd all done too much damage, even with using this Hemalurgy to kill people and take their abilities alone. They _all_ needed to die.

He needed to get out of here. He looked around the room, searching for any weapons to - _Sam_. Samar, of all people, was in this room. Kneeling alone on the ground, staring blankly. What in the storms? How did she - _Kelek's breath_, Rathil realized. _Did _she _make that hole in the ceiling? Is that how she got here? What's she doing here? _

"Sam," Rathil called. "What are you doing here? Let's get moving!" They needed to get back to killing these Inquisition monsters.

**Ene:** Tesh puts her weapon away and walks over. Quietly, she sets her hand comfortingly on my back. "Hi." She sounds as tired as I feel.

"Do you know how to fix a broken wing?" I ask.

**Tesh:** "No." We're dancing around reality in such a strange way. I look down at my poorly splinted leg. "And I don't know that if I tried, it would much good." I sit down next to this empty person, and realize she can be no older than twenty. I think of Mahshi being attacked by Detrare, and begin to cry again. Quietly, but it's still crying. Is this how it's going to be? Just thinking of him will reduce me to tears?

Why are so many dead because of me? Why can't I save them? Why? I hear Ani crying with me.

**Sami:** A thud sounded. A voice cutting into the haze of pain. Sam lifted her head, dully registering Rathil's injuries. "So you've all been out there," she muttered under her breath, "fighting. Guess I'm that useless after all."

**Ene:** She doesn't know. I drop my head, exhausted. Tesh begins weeping quietly. How are we supposed to do this?

I heave in a breath and gather up Rwendeh, feeling bad - I must be hurting her, but she's unconscious and can't show it now. I turn to Tesh. "Come on," I whisper. "Maybe we can find a healing fabrial or something. Looks like you need one too."

**Tesh:** I dry my eyes on my sleeve. "All right." We stand, leave the room, and begin to walk.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix Elsecalled to a dimly lit cavern. He knew that the only way to guarantee the Splinter would be dealt with with any finality would be found here. A Splinter of Ruin, part of a Shard now held by Sazed; the other half of Harmony's power, Preservation, still emanated from the room ahead, even after all these years. Phoenix approached the chamber that held the Well of Ascension. Perhaps Harmony had created a new Shardpool somewhere. The evidence was likely, considering that no ettmetal deposits were to be found here at the Well. But it wouldn't matter. The power here would still be enough to do what had to be done. It _had_ to be.

Phoenix approached the pool and knelt down by its edge. Phoenix reached into his robe and pulled out the gemstone that contained the Splinter of Ruin. It was only faintly glowing now; Phoenix remembered seeing it before, when first encountering Detrare - that it had been glowing quite brightly then. _It doesn't matter, _Phoenix thought. _If anything, it only makes me less likely to be influenced, with the Splinter in a seemingly weakened state. _But if he didn't linger too long, he may be able to find out invaluable information on the remaining members of the Inquisition. Surely there weren't many left alive.

Phoenix reached out through the stone. He felt a mass of Inquisition members back in the direction of the fortress, as expected. Surprisingly, there were still many more left than he expected, although most were not that strong. He also sensed a tug at his mind. He felt the Splinter's presence coming at him, confused as to why it couldn't control him, even though it had a Connection to his other self. That was still locked away, hopefully to never return. Phoenix tapped electrum and zinc to resist the Splinter's efforts.

Reaching out once more, he felt a small group of members at a location somewhat to the southwest of Elendel, but they were on the move away from the city and in a different direction than the fortress. Phoenix frowned at the oddity, then hurriedly expanded his view as he felt the Splinter hammering away at his mind. He detected a few larger groups of Inquisition members, though not anywhere near the size of the one at the fortress. They were moving in the Cognitive Realm toward Roshar. Now was _that_ an invasion force?

Phoenix could feel the Splinter pulsating at his mind. If he didn't do something soon, he would lose himself to its influence. Without further hesitation, Phoenix submerged the gemstone into the shallow end of the pool. Finally, his mind regained its calm. Phoenix quickly withdrew himself from the embankment and nearly collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. He sat there on the ground, trying to catch his breath, and waited to see if anything would happen. He began to tap bendalloy and bronze to keep himself from completely losing consciousness from shock.

Phoenix waited. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening. Then, suddenly, Phoenix saw tendrils of mist rise up around the pool. Phoenix tried to remain calm as the mist coalesced within the pool, and finally into the gemstone itself. The gemstone shone brightly, with much more intensity than it had before. As it continued glowing even brighter, Phoenix had to shield his eyes. The cavern was completely lit up by this point. Then, as suddenly as the reaction had started, it ended.

Phoenix cautiously approached the edge of the pool. There, in the shallow waters where Phoenix had deposited the jewel, he saw it, completely dun and void of all signs of the presence of Ruin. Surrounding it were five small nuggets of ettmetal. Phoenix broke into a large, wide grin. Now _this_ was a wholly unexpected surprise. Sazed was clearly sending a message that the Splinter had been dealt with, and appeared grateful enough to send some of his precious metal in return. Phoenix scooped up the dun gemstone as a memento, along with the invaluable metal Harmony had left behind.

**Fire:** Detrare woke, groaning. It was a process recovering from having one's head crushed multiple times in an instant. He'd barely retained consciousness, and even then, he must have passed out for - what, a minute or so? He shook his head, having finally finished healing it. He was still wearing the mask of Adonalsium's face, but it felt weird and different, smashed and bent while still on his own face, now pressed against it. Detrare felt at it and realized that some of it had bent into the shape of his face from pressing against it so deeply. It even dug in painfully in a couple spots, but Detrare could live with that. Now the mask was partially that of the face of Adonalsium himself and Detrare's own visage, all while being mangled and bent. Melded together into one, how poetic. Through suffering and pain, he was becoming more and more Adonalsium's Exemplar of Ruin. The last one - close enough to the last Inquisitor, curse it all.

Detrare's mind was a little muddy, his thoughts still coming together. Ouch, his _head_. Who had done this to him -

Saodin. From behind - Saodin had attacked him. _No! _Detrare spun around, looking around him. Mahshi's corpse was still there, thank Ruin for that good riddance, but Teshani and Saodin were gone. As was the Splinter.

"NOOO!" Detrare's scream devolved into senseless bellows of rage filled with various expletives. He slammed his fists into the walls, kicked at them, picked up his axes and continued slamming them into Mahshi's corpse. Everything. Was. Going. _Wrong_! With each swing and with each scream, Detrare reflected on the deaths of all those he had lost so recently. All those Inquisitors, all the other acolytes with their lesser powers who had sacrificed themselves for this cause, his son Bloodbath, and worst of all - Eheron. Detrare didn't know of his fate, but Saodin, the bloody traitor, had implied they'd lost him as well.

As much as Detrare was loath to admit this to himself, the Fulfillment could continue without its Exemplars. It could last to the very last member. But without the Splinter, all was lost. There would be no Fulfillment remaining. At that moment, the full implication of what was going on slammed into Detrare, and his screams of fury became sobs of misery as he dropped the axes, fell to his knees, and pounded his fists into the ground. "No. No. No, _please_...Adonalsium, why?" he wept. The Fulfillment was failing. It had failed on Scadrial. What hope did they have? None. It was over.

All that was left was...finishing off those who had Ruined it in the first place.

The misery swelled to anger again, and Detrare stood up determinedly. He picked up the obsidian axes once again, looked forward down the hallway where he knew Tesh could have gone. Amid the flurry of emotion barraging him, a twisted smile broke out on his face. Yes, if the Inquisition was to fail here, then Detrare would make sure that everything came down with it. If the Fulfillment was to fall, then it would fall hard, destroying anything in the path of its collapse. Literally. It was time to crush everything and everyone now. One last opportunity to destroy all the remaining Knights of the Cosmere and their legacy. A final act of the Fulfillment on Scadrial, the last great sacrifice of the New Inquisition. An example to all that remained of the Fulfillment that even in failure, there was opportunity for Ruin. By completely Ruining everything remaining in the failure. It was time to bring down this fortress and everyone in it.

Detrare stumbled forward, a mad cackle rising in his throat. Not a single one of those Knights was getting out of here alive. In fact, no one was.

Sam muttered something Rathil didn't hear. He strode over to her, aware of how he probably looked a shocking sight with skin glowing, clothing shredded, and covered in other people's blood. Did she see only the murderous madman? Then again, wasn't that what all the Vindicators were?

"Sam, we need to get out of here. We need you. I don't know who's down and out already, but Phoenix switched sides and almost killed me. We might all be losing; they just keep coming. I need your help fighting, so let's get _going_! Sam, whatever you're stuck in, snap out of it!" Rathil growled at her. Shouts came from above. Rathil looked up to see that crowd of people from before gathering at the edge of the hole in the ceiling, looking down into the room. The hole covered the entire floor of the area, leaving no room for people to walk around to the other side and surround the hole.

An angry woman in front of the gang peered down, narrowing her eyes at them. Tineye, maybe. "There're two down there!" she shouted. A look of unadulterated rage and hate was clear on her face. "Looks like they're in the Level Two Conventical! Some of you get down there to block their exit! We're not letting those *******s out of there alive or in one piece! I need -" She stopped herself from speaking further, apparently realizing that in her rage she was giving away a plan of attack. She hurriedly turned around and whispered something to the people behind her. Rathil had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.

He grabbed Sam's arm. "We need to be ready to move, girl," he whispered at her. "I don't know what's going on with you, but now is not the time!" Storms, he could guess what was happening to her. All this was too much for her. All the suffering of who knew how long was catching up to her and driving her to despair. She was going catatonic. Rathil knew how that was; it had happened to him more times than he could count in his life. But this was _not_ the time or place for it to happen. In fact, it was the absolute worst time for it to happen. Perhaps the enemy had planned on this happening to Sam, overwhelming her with too much at once. This New Inquisition had a thing for planning ahead, it seemed. Except, Rathil thought with satisfaction, for when they got ambushed by a joint attack of Surgefinders and Vindicators.

He steered Sami toward one of the stone slab tables in the center of the room. "Come on," he said, gritting his teeth. They couldn't just wait around like this, they needed to _do something_! The light bursting from Rathil demanded it. He needed to move, act, _fight_, not cower and wait for Sam to do something. Except he couldn't do this without her. Sam's special Radiant abilities were dangerous and powerful. She had destroyed that entire section of floor up there just by touching it. And he'd seen her use her knives before. She was good. She knew how to use them. Maybe once they all got out of this, he could give her some pointers or lessons on knife fighting. If they got out of this.

_Storm it, man_, he thought to himself angrily, _stop letting yourself get attached! Who cares if she lives or dies just like the others! She's going to die and the rest of the Knights are going to die, just like everyone else you've ever known! It's always been that way! Who cares? _

…_I care_, Rathil responded to himself, gritting his teeth as he tried rejecting all that he'd been telling himself these last few years. _Storm it, but I need these people, and I think they need me too. I didn't get pulled from the brink of death just to let them all die. I can't let _her _die. I won't lose them this time. _

With that strange and unfamiliar determination rushing through him, he looked back up, ready to face whatever came if he needed to. And he saw that others in the crowd up there were shoving up to the front of it. They were carrying guns. Lots of them. _Storms! _

He yanked Sam roughly to the other side of the slab facing the opposite wall and ducked down behind it, pulling her down with him right as the gunfire began. _Storm it, storm it, storm it, storm it! _With each banging shot, Rathil heard a sharp, plinging bounce off the other side of the slab and the top of it. Very close to where they were. Rathil was confident he could just heal his wounds away in the event he was shot, but he wasn't going to welcome getting shot either. Nor did he know if Sam would be able to live through it. _How are we going to get out of this one? _

"We're wasting bullets!" a gruff male voice shouted from above and behind. "Gimme your gun and let me get 'em from the other side!"

Rathil looked up at the hole above him, holding Sam down next to him. Nothing directly above quite yet. "Now would be a pretty good time to get up and get moving, girl," he whispered. The big hole in the ceiling was proof enough of how strong she was with her Radiant abilities. If she got back into the fighting, the chances of them winning - or at least getting out of this room alive - would go up by a _lot_. But being rough with her wasn't seeming to work like it had when she'd gone crazy at the Horneater Peaks. He needed to try something else. Would doing this calmly help? He didn't know what would shake her out of..._this_.

"Girl, I don't know what's happened to you, but…" Rathil wavered. What could he say? "But whatever happened can be put behind you. You choose what you are now, not what happened to you in the past. You've got the chance to be different from what you were, and what brought you to this. But right now, I _really_ need the Sam who will burn our way out of here and be a storming Radiant. You can help us. You're Radiant, for crying out loud. You still have the chance to get off your butt and save us." Rathil tipped her head up to look at him and gave her a small grin. "By helping me burn the heck out of these *******s. Please, Sam."

_Storms_, he thought. _I'm sounding like Phoenix did._ The thought of that filled him with a surge of anger. _Storm Phoenix, and let him burn below where they can't fit the all people who are going to ****ation. _But Rathil couldn't send them there without Sam's help. And they couldn't hold still. The light within wouldn't _let_ him. "Whatever is happening to you, I'm sure we can -"

Something moved above him. Rathil looked up to see a bearded, shirtless madman with a big spike in his shoulder fly across the gap of the hole within Rathil's line of sight to land at the other end right above them. Coinshot, probably. He was holding a big, long gun in his hands. The man looked straight down at Rathil and Sam, then narrowed the gun at them with an angry snarl.

"Sam!" Rathil screamed.

**Sami:** Gunshots. Yelling. A startling contrast to the heavy silence suffocating the room only a couple moments before Rathil had made his entry. Sam felt herself being dragged across the room and numbly felt her back hit stone, hard. Bullets thudded on the ground around her and Rathil's panicked face filled her vision, saying something she couldn't quite comprehend.

She felt his hand on her face and flinched, the shudder coming from deep within her. When had anyone had ever made contact like that without the intention of harming her, using her? _"But right now, I really need the Sam who will burn our way out of here and be a storming Radiant. You can help us. You're Radiant, for crying out loud. You still have the chance to get off your butt and save us...by helping me burn the heck out of these *******s. Please, Sam." _

Funnily enough, it wasn't those words that snapped her into motion - it was pain. A painful yank to the side and a sharp twinge in her bicep brought a newfound clarity to her brain and let her push away whatever emotions there were in there. _Get a hold of yourself, Sam. Fight now, mope later. _

She jerked upright, launching herself off the table and through the hole in the ceiling toward the guy. In a blast of energy that drained her reserves, she obliterated the man's gun and sent a powerful Push back at the bullets and guns pointing at her as the man's fist slammed into her ribs and sent her to the stone floor. Her Push didn't catch them all. A dozen bullets penetrated her back, and the few people who remained standing continued to shoot as the others rose, guns ready. Sam curled over, barely blocking another blow from the man and letting the Stormlight heal her vital organs.

A sense of almost comforting familiarity came with the physical pain. The older man had hit her with a mental blow that she couldn't return, but this she could handle. This, she could control. Sensing a boot aimed at her face, she rolled, pressing her hands against the floor, letting the back of her head take the blow. _BAM. _Darkness filled her vision, head spinning, Stormlight draining out of her and into the stone ground beneath her. Bonds breaking beneath her fingers. Far away, raised voices.

And then, falling.


	18. Strength Before Boss Battles

**Ene:** The two of us reached another door; behind us was a line of them that we'd flung open, looking for something to heal with. Well, for Tesh and Rwendeh to heal with. I, of course, didn't need it.

I pointedly did not think about Dawn. Quell. Dog. Thene. Jathlet…

Grasping the handle, I swung it wide to reveal what appeared to be a supply closet. Shockingly, the Vindicator Fullborn - Cole - was inside, looking rather like he could use some healing as well. I scanned the room, grabbing some lit spheres and a healing fabrial off a rack on the wall.

Tossing the spheres one by one at Tesh, I used the fabrial on Rwendeh. Once the Aviar was fully healed, I set the softly glowing fabrial on a shelf; then took it again after not much contemplation. We might need it in the future.

**Tesh:** Diona pulls open the door, and _Cole_ is inside. I pull out my sword, but he seems to be in terrible shape. So I slide my sword back into its sheath, catch the sphere Diona throws to me, and breathe in the Light.

_Life. _The storm is back, and my wounds begin to heal. I breathe in a little more Light from the rack of gemstones and grab as many as I can, shoving them into my pockets. The Lashings are mine once again.

**Fire:** "Hey!" Requiem yelled. He waved as he ran toward the group, his tools and weapons jangling on his belt. And - he figured before they could react to him as a pursuer and kill him instantly - he added, "It's me, Requiem! I'm joining your group!"

The rather small party turned around, wary. They were all on horseback, carrying a lot of stuff with them, their leader riding a much larger, stone-hoofed horse. Where'd the Inquisition get a beast like that? The leader glared at him. So she recognized him. He knew her. He didn't like her much, mostly because she didn't like him; Kezeras. The red-and-white marble-skinned lady - parsh, he thought her kind was called - was obviously, and definitely understandably, in a bad mood. They all were. All their plans were going to heck. Req didn't want to go back there. He'd spent a childhood in Hell. Literally. Which was why he was running away. Or as he kept telling himself, he was...joining the Inquisition on another world.

Req slowed himself to a stop, bending over and coughing as he tried to catch his breath. He looked back up at Kezeras, who was frowning at him heavily. He gave her an awkward half grin. Didn't care if she was mad at him, so long as she didn't kill him.

"Really?" she asked derisively. "And why are you so late in coming?" Her voice had some singing lilt to it he couldn't explain. _Must know music_, Req thought jealously. He'd never understood music, which was totally unfair because he was named after a type of song! How come she got to be all singy?

Req coughed into his arm, trying to hurriedly come up with an answer. Why hadn't he thought of one on the way here? "Uh…whew. With so much chaos going on, Detrare was a little late in telling me I was supposed to join your party until he...I don't know, remembered me. Must've thought I was important enough to send with you." He smirked. Well, that wasn't so bad for having come up with it on the spot.

Kezeras hummed, but it was an angry hum. "What makes you so valuable? And why are you so lighthearted? The Fulfillment is dying, you fool!"

Right, she was all about Passion. More than most, and that was saying something. "Ah, well," Req said, huffing, "dung happens. We get stuck in bad ruts. Our plans get hampered. So we plan again and find other ways to Ruin stuff. Can't let our spirits get low, because we've always got the chance to destroy other things in other places. And wow, me? Useful? I tell you why - I got weapons. And designs for more. And a mind for building even more. I can build and provide the instruments of death to all of us and the people we're meeting over where we're going." He leaned toward Kezeras and winked. "Give us a sharper edge in bringing the Fulfillment to the rest of the cosmere, you know?" _Passion. She's all about that. Use that._ "I'll forge the blades we'll use to burn our destination in the heat of our Passion."

She growled and waved her hand dismissively. "Whatever. We must hurry! If you were able to catch up to us, then that means our enemies might be able to as well!" Kezeras swiveled her enormous horse around and began riding away at an increased pace. The others did so as well.

"Hey, what about me?" Req yelled. "Where's my horse?"

Without looking, Kezeras pointed to a man on her left who was riding another large horse, though not as huge as hers. "He rides with you."

The man groaned, but pulled his horse to a stop. Requiem ran up to him, took his outstretched hand, and was pulled up onto the horse's back behind him with a jangling of weapons and tools.

_Finally_, Req thought. _Good to go. Except…I don't know _where _we're going. _He looked around him, wondering if anything else they had might answer his question before he tried speaking it out loud. He noticed something on another horseback with a shock. Bound and tied to the woman riding the horse, riding back behind her like Req was on his own steed, was an unusual-looking creature. Sure, it looked humanoid, but its skin looked like it was made of ropes and vines tied tightly into the shape of a body, and its eyes were gone, gouged out or something like that. _What the Forests? _

"So…" he said slowly, still staring at the thing, "I forget. Where are we going again?"

"Roshar," Kezeras responded immediately. "We will find my brother and his part of the Fulfillment there, wield weapons such as our Shardblade here and the ones you will make for us, and we will burn the world in our Passion and our fury as we join the war of none other than the very God of Passion himself. We will join the void and become it as that world is razed to depths."

Wait, so that weird looking thing without eyes was one of the legendary Shardblades? Shouldn't it have looked...more like a sword? And Roshar. That legendary world of storms and Desolations. That apparently had a new storm and a new Desolation happening on it, he'd heard. And now they were going to join the _Voidbringers of legend_ and get caught up in the middle of a literal world war between gods and men and magical creatures that would cover every inch of the world. _Aw, heck,_ Requiem thought, feeling sick. _And here I thought I was getting away from things. _

"_And we will bathe the universe in the blood of all that lives and the ashen remains of all that doesn't,"_ Kezeras whispered fiercely. There was a determination to her voice, one of a person Devoted to a cause even though it seemed like it was failing. "The Fulfillment is far from over. If anything, now it will really begin."

It was like swimming through a fever dream, stumbling through the chaos that was all your plans failing, failing, failing. The feeling that simultaneously made one feel hopeless, lost, miserable, confused, and furious. Burning with a rage so hot that the moment it was released, it would burn everything near it. Except that that overwhelming hopelessness and misery washed over it and mixed with it, creating a melting pot of emotions that plowed through the heart and mind, making it hard to think or see through the haze or horror.

Detrare stumbled through this just as much as he was physically stumbling through his fortress, looking around himself and seeing everything fail. So many emotions swirling within him, but which of them should he be feeling? Which should he let control him? Should he let the misery pull him to the ground in a sobbing wreck again, the rage drive him to smash and slice and bite at everything near him without any sense, or let the hopelessness leave him immobile and in shock? Or was he already in shock right now? He couldn't tell. It seemed all there was left to do was to burn it all. The Fulfillment on Scadrial had failed. Even after the centuries of planning and carefully hidden background work, it was failing. So it might as well be Ruined itself. One last chance for Ruin before it ended for him and everyone else…

Here and there and everywhere, Detrare wandered with only a location in mind, letting his body do the work of putting one foot in front of the other while his mind wallowed in that mess of churning, toxic emotion choking him and tossing him every which way, throwing off his balance as he continued to stumble forward with a final contingency in mind. He tripped over a corpse, collapsing onto the ground once again. The collision jolted him to his senses again, at least a little bit, and he snarled, swiveling about to see what had done that. "You - what - no…"

The body on the ground was one he knew. Mahah, that chief tactician and strategist all the way from Jah Keved who had ordered and planned out many strikes of the Fulfillment across the cosmere at Detrare's dictation. Casually smashed to the ground in a broken heap by Cole, it seemed. Cole...how would Detrare even negotiate with the man if he had suddenly stopped fighting and disappeared? He couldn't send anyone because Saodin had taken away the blasted gemstone and Splinter and...done what with it? Detrare screamed out and pushed himself to his feet, kicking Mahah's limp body.

Blasted waste of potential, gone before he'd even had the chance to commit real Ruin, the worthless sack of blood. He was dead, Bloodbath was dead, Havoc was dead, Lenali was dead, Fist was dead, Sanrin was dead, Tomain was probably dead, Saodin had implied that even dear Eheron was dead, and who knew about Maim, Kezeras, Aloo, or the others? Whatever the case, they were all going to die. Everyone was going to die, and Detrare would watch them all die. Then he would die with them.

Jolted properly back into senses, he began running, actively searching for the best route to the hidden room that held his last contingency, Pushing off fallen weapons on the floor if he had to in order to launch himself across entire rooms. A few hallways down here and there, and - something lay facedown on the ground there in the middle of a room.

Someone. Someone familiar. Detrare skidded to a stop, wary. He feared the answer to the silent question: who was it this time? Even though he knew it to be apparent. He hadn't checked on Maim before losing the Splinter, so he couldn't even have been sure without visual proof. As he tentatively stepped forward, a sob broke out of his throat as he saw the side of Maim's face. He turned the body over with his foot, seeing another man lying underneath the dear Inquisitor. His hand still loosely held the knife now buried in Maim's chest. How had one simple man killed such a divinity on his own? A feat Detrare would have considered impressive, had it not been so despicable.

Part of him wanted to lash out, to tear apart this stranger's corpse for taking away another one of his children and to hold onto Maim's body, screaming and crying. But he just...couldn't right now. Instead of that burning rage, he felt a numbing sense of resignation. The feeling of loss, of horror at the sudden death of a close loved one, had stabbed into Detrare so many times that it was starting to feel old. Now he felt only sorrow and a smoldering hate for the one who had done this cruel act, but that fire was merely a soft, simmering ember being doused away in the streams of sorrow. Adonalsium…he was losing the ability to feel. The heck that was today was taking so much from him that there would soon be nothing left of him to hold any feeling.

_May the Beyond have more for you to burn, dear one,_ he thought to Maim as he forced himself to keep walking. _The least I can do for you is give you a proper burial. _He continued forward, ready for the next horror to come before he committed the final horror.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix snapped suddenly back to consciousness. When had he slipped away? His head swam with fogginess and fatigue. He blinked and looked around; he was still in the cavern housing the Well. _Good thing no one decided to use the portal_, he thought to himself, checking his stores of bronze - they were depleted. Most likely he had collapsed from exhaustion after fighting against the Splinter, with no remaining reserves to keep himself conscious.

Phoenix looked down to his hand at the dark stone still resting in his palm. Yes! Finally, the Splinter was no more. Now Detrare and his minions were truly vulnerable! And the ettmetal...Phoenix felt in his robes. There. Yes, that would be useful later. There were still serious threats to attend to now. Research could come later. Phoenix prepared to Elsecall back to the Inquisition fortress to confront a weakened Detrare, but hesitated. The groups of the Inquisition he had seen through the gemstone earlier, the ones headed for the Roshar exit out of Scadrial. They were still a threat. Even if they stopped the Inquisition here on Scadrial, those other groups could simply regroup on Roshar and rebuild. That could _not_ be allowed to happen. The other Knights were still fighting, and Phoenix had healed Cole to where he should be able to fight again as well. Phoenix was the only one with the ability to catch this other group in time.

So he went after them, alone. It took Phoenix a few jumps to locate anyone, as he had no idea how long he had passed out for. But finally, on his last jump, he saw a small caravan traveling in the distance. Phoenix Elsecalled to the front of the caravan and stood in its path. Wait, was that a _singer_ with them?

The caravan came to a halt at the signal of the singer, who appeared to be their leader. She made direct eye contact with him, and everything went dark.

Saodin emerged from the darkness. Ah! Freedom once again. It was a gamble, to be sure, to put in the same failsafe Phoenix had, for eye contact to be the key to his release. He'd had to believe Phoenix wasn't willing to stop until all of the brethren, the Inquisition, had been destroyed. And he was right. Phoenix's zeal had been his undoing.

And all because of a small, unblemished portion of the Splinter, nestled deep within the hidden place of Phoenix's mind, a place that Phoenix himself had created. The portion of the Splinter that Saodin himself had unintentionally absorbed into himself when torturing Rathil. He had had no idea that that move would end up being his salvation. Well, of both himself _and_ of the Inquisition. But he could not risk Phoenix regaining control and destroying him or the Splinter forever. Drastic action must be taken.

Saodin recognized the face from looking into the gemstone when he was with Detrare. The Splinter, self-aware inside of him, somehow now _melded_ to his very essence; gave him a name. _Kezeras. _"Kezeras, dear sister, be calm. I am sent here by the Inquisition, so the Fulfillment may live another day. My name is Saodin. I at long last have rejoined the fold to help my brothers and sisters bring Ruin to the cosmere. However, for certain reasons, this vessel cannot join you. But my essence, which has become inseparable from that of the Splinter which the Knights _tried_ to destroy, can."

Saodin pulled out the dun gemstone and concentrated. First, he stored all of his memories since regaining control of Phoenix into an unused coppermind. Hopefully Saodin's Spiritual essence was separate enough by now that Phoenix wouldn't be able to access the memories, if he even survived this. Then, with all of his focus, he pushed his essence and that of the Splinter's into the gemstone. The jewel began to glow with a faint violet hue. He pushed harder, until he felt his very spirit leaving his body and going into the stone.

Phoenix collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

**Cole:** Cole's steel sense activated before he was even fully conscious. The cacophony of blue lines was overwhelming from his tired mind, but he soon readjusted to his sixth sense. He realized that two shapes in the middle of the room were moving. They were people in the closet with him. His eyes snapped open, then closed just as quick when the light hit them. The feeling of waking up had become foreign to him in the many years he had gone without sleeping.

It was only then that he remembered to store the memory of his dream in a small coppermind before it could fade away. After a second, Cole tried to open his eyes again, barely managing to keep them open even when he blocked the light with his hands. In the past he had questioned his decision to forgo sleep, but this experience of waking up increased his resolve to never let sleep's hands hold him again. This feeling of weakness, of impotency, was his greatest fear. It was enough to be deep in an enemy stronghold, Feruchemical reserves running low, metals almost completely burned away. But to also be blinded by a simple light and barely able to think straight infuriated him.

It was only after he stood up that he remembered he had company. Pulling his last blade from what remained of his pants, Cole raised it to a defensive position, desperately praying that whoever it was would wait long enough to attack that his head would clear. Blinking away the spots in his eyes, Cole realized who stood before him. _Tesh. Tesh, always Tesh. Sometimes it feels like fate has cursed her to find me in the worst ways_, was the only thing he thought. "How did you find me?" His voice was raspy, reflecting the weariness in his soul.

**Tesh:** "Not on purpose," I mutter. "How did you get here?" I have my hand on my sword, wary, as Cole looks up at me. I'm raging with Stormlight, but even with it, I'll never be able to defeat him.

**Ene:** My attention is jerked away from Rwendeh by Cole's words. "How did you find me?" He sounds awful.

"Not on purpose," Tesh murmurs. "How did you get here?"

"And...are you okay?" I interject.

**Tesh:** "He'll be fine. A year or so ago, he had most of his limbs chopped off a few times. I don't know if it's the fact that it happened more than once or that they're there now that makes me not worry."

**Fire:** The Rhythms were always within Kezeras, no matter how far she went. Even though she had no memory of her life before the past few years, ever since being reborn, the Rhythms were still second memory to her, always with her. Along with her Passion, her Devotion, her hunger to Ruin, and her hatred for life, those had been the only constants of her life. Right now, she hummed to the Rhythm of Confusion. This stranger - Saodin, he called himself - had appeared in front of them, claiming to be one of them and holding what looked to be none other than the stone of glory that held the fractured soul of a fractal of Ruin. And then the gem had started glowing, and he'd collapsed unconscious to the ground. _Strange_, Kezeras thought, attuning the Rhythm of Curiosity. _What to do with this? _

This was unexpected, not part of the plan she had known. Or was it? Had he said that he'd come on behalf of their high lord Detrare? Whoever he was, he possessed that sliver of infinite Ruin even Kezeras did not comprehend. Not only that, he seemed to have put something of himself into it. Perhaps...that soul had been within him? How? Impossible. It couldn't leave the gemstone. Whoever - whatever - this man was, he was somehow able to interact with it, something no one else in the history of the Inquisition had done.

_The Inquisition is dead_, Kezaras thought bitterly, attuning Mourning, then Spite, then Fury. _For all we know, we are all that remains of that Fulfillment. What was once called the New Inquisition is no more, only the mission of the Fulfillment. A mission we will carry with the void, to the void. _Could this strange man be an asset? Could he be trusted? Either way, he had somehow controlled, even Connected to, a part of Ruin, which was no small feat.

"So, uh…" Requiem, the storm-ridden simpleton, said from behind her, "that was weird. So…are we just gonna go over him?" Normally he wasn't so talkative, but he had gotten strange in the head ever since everything had gone to ****ation.

_Idiot_, she thought, switching to the Rhythm of Irritation as she growled at him. "Fool. Wait." She looked back down at the man - Saodin - and hopped off her horse. This needed to be quick. What to do? Kezeras had not been gifted with the ability to think better or gain intelligence. That was for those in higher positions. No, she had simply been gifted with increased mental fortitude stolen from the spirit of another through Hemalurgy to strengthen her mind when others might lose theirs, like her brother, as well as the ability to store and generate her own body heat by tapping brass and the ability to enhance her senses by burning tin. None of those were helpful in situations where one needed to think quickly.

So she simply scooped the once-again glowing gemstone off the ground and cradled it as she hopped back onto her horse. Pointing to a woman she knew could burn pewter on a nearby horse, she ordered to the Rhythm of Derision, "Tie one of his legs to your saddle and drag him behind you. He comes with us, but not as a companion until we know more of him. We do not trample and kill him yet, but nor do we welcome him. Don't go quickly, but do not be gentle either."

She started forward again, leaving the person on her horse to curse and jump off, quickly grabbing the man by his leg, dragging him over next to her horse, and taking a bit of binding rope to tie tightly around his leg, then to the rung at the back of her saddle. This delayed her movement on her steed, so she trailed behind as the rest continued behind Kezeras.

_Now, to the void. _

Bludgeon was here. That was surprising enough for Detrare. He hadn't kept all of his Inquisitor children close with him; Bludgeon had gone off on a mission of his own to gain power before returning. Detrare had once expected to find him waiting for the rest of the Fulfillment when they met up on Nalthis - now he had basically forgotten the Exemplar of Ruin who dwelled out there.

It appeared Bludgeon had come home early. Detrare should have detected his arrival with the gemstone, even if he hadn't been looking for him. But so much had been going on that...he hadn't even bothered. Was he so careless that he hadn't thought to notice the arrival of one of his Exemplars? Well, here he was. Bludgeon, the ruthless and cunning Inquisitor who'd deliberately chosen a name that expressed the opposite of his personality and fighting style, had returned. And he was dead, too. Should Detrare have been surprised about that?

Detrare saw only Bludgeon's corpse, nothing else. Not the blood and dust on the ground around him, not the dead bodies of an axehound and some other man laying next to him, probably the one who had killed him. He fumbled for words, blubbering as he dropped his axes. They landed in the dust, throwing some of it into the air. Why was there dust? He knelt down softly, cradling the young man's head. Then he let out a scream of raw, unfiltered fury and misery. "_WHY?!" _

Why was the cosmere turning against him now? It was as if it was targeting him specifically to torment and take everything away. For what? Doing what was _necessary_? It was bad enough knowing that all of his other Inquisitors had been killed. But that was when he had still thought he had at least one other out there. And now, it appeared, he was gone too. Him, Maim, Bloodbath…storm it, all of them! Detrare growled and surged to his feet. So it really was over. There was no chance. The Fulfillment was dead, all his Exemplars of Ruin were dead, who knew what would happen to his Exemplars of Passion and Devotion? Who knew if they even still lived?

If what the bloody traitor Saodin had said before was true, then that meant Eheron was gone as well. He couldn't bear to think on that. Detrare shoved that thought away and refused to acknowledge such a thing. The boy was an Elantrian, for crying out loud! And a full Feruchemist, with each power gained from the glorious power of Hemalurgy used on another. He needed to live. For the Fulfillment here was dead, but at least it still had a chance to persist on other worlds. It would have to continue without him. Without the New Inquisition. Which was why it all had to go away. Everyone was dying already. Detrare now had to finish it. He tore his eyes away from Bludgeon's body and began running in the direction of where the orb was. The other orb in the fortress. The hidden one. The one that would end this.

Then he noticed some of the dust on the ground. He paused, a thought popping into his head. _No, it can't be…_Most of that dust had been turned blackish-grey, but some particles of it still glowed white. No, it _was_ glowing. It wasn't just dust, it was sand. White sand. From Taldain. _Taldain. _Detrare's mind cracked a little more. Bludgeon had made it to Taldain? The inaccessible world the Inquisition had deliberately planned not to Ruin because they knew it was impossible to fight against the Shard of Autonomy? One of the Shardworlds left out of their plans for universal destruction because they couldn't reach it? Not anymore, it seemed. Which meant that people could reach it once again after all these millennia, just as Bludgeon did. There was no other way he could have done that. The only possible way to get ahold of that glowing white sand was to be on that world.

And Bludgeon had _used_ it. That meant he'd actually found a way to spike the ability of sand mastery out of someone on that world and become a sand master. A wistful flicker of pride flitted through Detrare's otherwise tumultuous heart. "Well done, boy…" he murmured. "Well done." But...they could have destroyed Taldain all along and hadn't known it. Detrare was only realizing this the very day all their chances of doing so were dashed away. This universe and its cruel irony. A new surge of rage stabbed into Detrare as his mind, his world, and his life just broke a little bit more. He scooped up the axes and started running again. Just a couple more turns now.

All this hate...all this heartbreak...it was too much. Too much to handle at once. Too much horror in one day. And now would come another horror, one he would have to bring upon himself, as much as he hated to. Now it was before him. Or rather, the door was before him. It wasn't cleanly visible on the wall, but he knew it among the columns of stone that interspersed the walls of mist. He twisted its hidden lever and shoved forward, inching the stone slab out of place, then ducked into the tiny hole that opened up into the short winding wooden staircase. To the control room.

That had all happened so quickly. One moment, Sam was soaring upward, saving both of them from what could have been the end - then had taken multiple shots in the back. "No!" he screamed as he saw some of the bullets hit her while others were pushed away. She had killed multiple people in doing that, but at the cost of what could have been her life. Sam fell. _No_.

Rathil shouted and dove forward, slamming into her and catching her right before she collided with the ground, making them both tumble roughly to the floor. A second body fell screaming next to him and crashed headfirst into the ground with a crack. That man. At least she'd gotten him. But it seemed he'd gotten her too. Gunshots rang out around them. Luckily, the people holding those guns must have been raging enough or simply unskilled enough that the shots mostly missed them, save for one that grazed Rathil's side, which healed straight away. He swiftly lifted the girl up and hurled himself over to the stone table to crouch behind it again. A small part of him was dissatisfied that that hadn't worked and that they were back to square one. But that was overshadowed by the shame and hate he felt for himself again. _Idiot, idiot, idiot!_ he thought to himself. _You've killed her! _Was he really so callous?

He clutched her close and listened for breathing, feeling for a pulse. Yes…she was still alive. Barely. "Idiot!" he growled to himself. What was he thinking? That he could shake her out of her reverie and jolt some sense into her in an instant just for her to magically be all fine and battle-ready? Fool. You couldn't just expect someone going through whatever she was going through to be ready to save the day at any given second. He was so stupid! She wasn't ready for this, and he'd just callously forced it on her anyway. Who cared that if she hadn't gone up there to take that man down she was still going to die either way?

He'd practically gotten her killed. He hated himself for a lot of things, but now he hated himself for that more than anything else. "I'm sorry," he whispered absently. Then the panic settled in. _What to do now? What to do? What to do? _Now they were really stuck down here, no way out. She was his only chance at escape, and without her, he was just stuck until that crowd came down and he fought them to the death. He couldn't stand against them all, not even with the flood of Light still coursing through him.

Wait. The Light. It healed him. What if…Rathil dug the medallion out of his pocket. The gold one with the bit of stored health. What if he stored a bunch in it at once? If he had _health to spare_? Rathil began filling the metalmind medallion rapidly, somehow putting his own health into it by some mental process. He was still having a hard time understanding this Feruchemy, let alone the fact that he was even able to do it. But now, he was shoving so much health into this thing, he probably should have been withering away or passing out or vomiting or something. But because of all the glorious light in him keeping him healthy, it made up for it by instantly healing that. For every morsel of health stuffed into that little medallion, the light covered the difference for it in his body so that he felt perfectly healthy even while storing. He was getting sick and healing at the same time, all while still being able to put a reserve in the coin.

The gunfire around them stopped. Maybe they were reloading. Or hopefully they were now out of ammo. Didn't matter, they still had Rathil and Sam cornered. He kept it up for a few moments, the little goldmind being stuffed full of power. Almost as if he was putting the light itself in it, considering the way his own health was conserved. But after a few seconds, the light he emitted was now dimming, becoming fainter. His glow was fading. If he kept storing, then he would have nothing to draw on while storing. So he finally stopped. A few seconds later, that faint light winked out, and Rathil was normal once again. It was as if the last light of his hope flickered away, plunging him back into that darkness that always crawled up to consume him. Like the light within him, his hope for survival disappeared with a puff…

"Hey!" a voice shouted from above. "His Stormlight ran out! We've got 'em now!"

_That's what you think. _The only difference now was that both he and Sam had a way of healing. Maybe that would increase their chances of getting out of here, having a way for both of them to keep themselves alive. Only one way to find out. He placed the coin in her limp hand and closed her fist around it. "Sam, do you feel this? You can heal from it! It's got health in it for you to tap, lots of it! You need it, you'll die without it. We've gotta try getting out of here again, together this time! We need a plan! So, hurry and heal up, then let's get working."

No response. She just lay there, cradled unconscious in his arms. He shook her, rocking her head from side to side. "Sam, wake up! Listen to me! This is our last chance. You've gotta heal now while you still can. Can you hear me?" He shook her again. "Wake up, you need this!" Still no response. He growled and shook her again. "Girl, I'm not tapping anything more from this until you do, so either you heal up now or we both die now! Heal! Storm it, _heal_!"

He squeezed her hand tighter, hoping - stupidly - that it would make a difference as he clutched her tighter, her head lying limply on his blood-soaked chest. He was about to yell at her again, but the words caught in his throat and he laid his forehead on top of her head, breaking into a sob. He couldn't do this to her again. Not to Sam. This young woman he barely knew, who barely knew him and probably had no care for him, who had gone through more in her life than someone her age rightfully should, just like him. She wasn't just his only chance of getting out of here. She was someone who deserved a better life than this. And a better death than this.

"Please...forgive me..." he choked out. "I know you're going through a lot now, but we need to get out of here. Not just to kill all these Inquisition members, but to get out of here alive. Please, heal. I'm sorry for being so hard on you before and putting you in a bad spot, but...please, help me here. I need you to get us out of here alive. And because…" _Storms_! Why did he care about her so? Why in ****ation did he feel this stupid need to look out for her or feel sympathy for her, and for practically everyone he'd ever gotten to know, for crying out loud? He barely knew her! She was just a Vindicator he'd been forced to work with who didn't know or care about him. He had forced himself to never feel for anyone again because everyone he had ever cared about had been brutally taken from him. And even if not brutally, they were still lost to time. Like Hamali…

Except for her, everyone he ever knew and cared about had died horribly right in front of him. He'd promised himself he'd stop caring so he didn't have to go through this. To keep from putting them in positions where their lives were in danger because of him and to keep himself from suffering the loss of them. Equally selfish and selfless, from a certain point of view. And right now, he needed this girl, this broken young woman, to snap out of it, heal herself, and get them out of here. But she needed to be ready and oriented this time, able to work with him. He also needed her because...well, he needed her. Needed her to stay alive, he told himself. He couldn't allow her to die, regardless of whether or not his life was also at stake; he needed her to rise up again. "Please, Sam…"

Or else they were all going to die. "…I can't lose you too…"

**Cole:** Cole's mind begins to fall back into focus with her question. _I don't need their pity! _"I'm fine," he growls out. _How dare they pity me, me! _The brief moment of rage subsided. It was replaced with weariness. The day had been so very long, and was not yet over. "Te...Tesh." His voice failed him halfway through her name. Cole remembered that it had been hours since he had drunk anything. "The room...where we fought. Where is it?"

Every word took unexpected effort. This was another weakness he hadn't felt in a decade. Today was a reminder to Cole. A reminder that, despite the power that made him the strongest thing he had ever met, he was no god. His mortality was clearer now then it ever had been before. Fatigue, hunger, thirst, and above all, weakness. Things he hadn't felt in a decade. At the height of his power, he'd never had to sleep, eat, drink, or even breathe if he so desired. The thing that Cole lacked most now wasn't his godly power, but something that was more essential to his being - his confidence. This wasn't the only time he had been stricken of his power, but this was the closest he had ever been to being mortal. Even in those other times, the thought of defeat had never even crossed his mind. Complete confidence had always accompanied him, along all of his life. Now...now that was all shattered.

**Sami:** Sam came to. A faint, unfamiliar voice, pleading for her to snap out of it...again? She felt a vague annoyance for some reason that she couldn't fathom. She felt her bones rather painfully snapping back into place, bullets being pushed out of her body, her spine realigning itself. A couple more seconds and she could…

She opened her eyes and found herself caged in the arms of a weirdly familiar-looking guy, who seemed to be pressing his forehead against hers. She jerked away, sputtered weakly, and struggled to sit up out of his too-close-for-comfort bubble, shuddering at the contact. "Get - your hands - off me." They had been in some sort of fight, judging by her injuries and his blood-covered clothes. Who were they fighting? Where were they? Sam tried to remember entering a stone room like this...and came up with nothing. They had been discussing plans. Tesh was captured. Her little entourage being annoying as usual. What had happened next? Was it Stormlight that had healed her? A quick glance at her skin proved her wrong.

She lifted her hand and something fell to the ground with a clink. A metalmind. Exactly like the ones Phoenix had handed out. Where was her own Stormlight? She took another look at the guy, suddenly registering his hand still on her shoulder and flinching away. Hang on, she knew this guy. His name was Ra-Rashik? That wasn't right. _Rathil._ His name was Rathil. Why hadn't she been able to remember?

A bullet whizzed over her shoulder.

**Fire:** Sam healed, bless her. And promptly shoved herself out of his arms. Made sense. That's the kind of thing she would do. Rathil cleared his throat and tried not to think of what he'd said just before. He'd gotten a bit soft there. Had she heard that? Whatever. Now that she was fine, they needed to - ****ation, she stood up _again_. Shots rang out, one going right over her shoulder. What the -

"Idiot girl!" he growled, grabbing her arm and yanking her back down. "I was holding you there to keep you from getting shot, and I'm not letting that happen to you again! That's already been enough of a problem." Was she still kind of out of it? Seemed like it.

Light? Chaos. Color? Death. Life? Ruin. Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing had

meaning anymore.

Rainbow lights all around, symbolizing a stability that would shatter and bring the world to fall...glimmering, shimmering lights in every direction, flickering and wavering within their fragile prisons, waiting to break and release their light and let all things they held fall away...lights, rainbow-colored lights...gems, lots of gemstones...the one with the Splinter was just one of them. The most important gemstone of all, but only one of many. The rest were here.

Detrare was surrounded by multicolored gemstones set into metallic lattices that stretched from floor to ceiling. Lines of white light pulsed out from each gem like blood being pumped from a heart, running along the metallic veins and flowing into the spongy walls of mist. That light was a pure and raw form of energized Investiture, captured by the gems and filtered through on those lines of metal, and it was what gave the misted walls of the fortress their form and held the place together.

Without the light, the misty walls would simply be formless, intangible mist like the rest of the Expanse of the Vapors. If the conduits were to be suddenly destroyed, the light would stop flowing through the mist, its source of renewal depleted. The mists would instantly rush to return to the flat ground the entire rest of the Expanse of the Vapors was made of. The Inquisition had only harnessed the cognitive matter into the shape of their home. But of course, this headquarters was more than just a castle of pure mist.

There was a reason the fortress was composed of both physical materials such as stone and wood along with the very mists of the Expanse of the Vapors. People may have wondered about that. Why were some of its hallways carved out of stone and some of its balconies built out of wood, yet many of its rooms made of compact mist? Why was the floor made of granite in one room but mist in the next one? Why were there so many stone columns with wooden bases dotted among spongy walls of fog? Why were all the basements and highest battlements made out of rock, but all the largest outer walls only made of mist? Because without the mist - without anything holding in the place the Inquisition had forced it into with these gemstones so long ago - it was all just a flimsy, weakly built structure with nothing holding it together.

It was perfectly structured to collapse in the most Ruinous and calamitous manner possible once the mists were gone. The feeble structural integrity would collapse entirely and demolish itself in a blaze of destruction, bringing a final end to the headquarters of the New Inquisition, the Ruination of the very home of the Fulfillment. It was a death trap. It had been from the very beginning.

The original plan was that once Scadrial had been thoroughly Ruined, all life and order destroyed on both the Physical and Cognitive level, the army of the Fulfillment would top it all off in a celebratory manner by finishing the destruction of Scadrial with their own base. They were all going to watch this place come crashing down from a distance, cheering and exulting in glory as the last establishment of order, the very thing they had built, was finally destroyed like the world it was attached to.

It was to be a symbol of the destruction of everything, even that which was a part of the Fulfillment. In order for everything to be Ruined - or at least, as much of the universe as was possible for them - the Fulfillment would also have to Ruin itself. That, or be Ruined by others they fought. Either way, the plan was always for the Fulfillment to meet its end no matter what along with the rest of the cosmere. But today...right now, at this moment...given the circumstances...it was simply going to come down to obliterating everyone and everything within it. The end of the Fulfillment was here, so Detrare might as well finish it off with the ending blow he had planned since this place had even been built.

In the original plan, Bloodbath was to be the one to come down here and destroy these gemstones, then launch himself out in a blitz of glory as the fortress crumbled into chaos. A proud moment for Detrare and the rest of the Fulfillment. An accomplishment on the part of Bloodbath that he would be able to stand proud the rest of his days, knowing what a service he had done to God and how proud he had made his father. But now, he was gone. Taken from Detrare by those Knights from ****ation. The Knights who were going to be destroyed with the Fulfillment they were fighting. And because his beloved child was gone, Detrare would have to take on this glorious responsibility himself. He was the only one left here to do so.

So he smashed his obsidian axes repeatedly upon the first stone, cracking it, letting its light of pure Investiture leak out and dribble onto the floor while fading away. He hacked away at the metallic latticework surrounding it that the light traveled on, snapping off rods and shattering their structures. Bits of metal and molten light collapsed onto the floor, and after a few more bashes from his axes, the first gemstone exploded and its shards scattered across the floor. A low rumble echoed all around him, all around the entire fortress as its structural integrity decreased just a bit. Wood banisters would now be straining, stone pillars starting to crack. Not enough. Detrare moved on to the next one.

He slashed and hacked and kicked at all the metal rods and gemstones, not even stopping to finish destroying one gem before moving on to attack another one, so intent was he on just destroying everything around him. He screamed as he did so, letting the grief of dozens of sudden deaths loose as he clambered to destroy everything around him. Another gemstone exploded. Another one cracked deeply, ready to shatter. Another lost its connection to the walls when all the metallic lines around it were cut away. The fortress continued to rumble and shake, parts of it surely beginning to crumble away and collapse up above.

He should have felt proud of this. The shattering of these gemstones had been planned since this building's conception. This was meant to be the New Inquisition's final moment of glory before they left this broken and dying world of Scadrial to Ruin the next world over, the great triumph to finalize the true destruction of this sphere, the symbolic start of what was to come to all the other planets that dotted the cosmere's dying surface.

Instead, he felt only an empty resignation to the inevitable, a resignation to the fact that all had gone to heck and there was nothing to carry on because of their failure. As he continued hacking away at every gemstone or line of metal within reach, spinning about the room and slashing wantonly, he felt no true satisfaction, no pride. Only darkness.

He wasn't doing this for pride, for glory, or even for the sake of Ruin. No, he was doing this out of hate. Out of spite. Detrare realized that he didn't want to destroy this fortress right now to fulfill God's will. He just wanted everyone to die. He wanted everyone to suffer and die. Just as he had. This wasn't for Ruin, and therefore could not be done out of pride. Especially since he was effectively Ruining the rest of the Fulfillment in doing this. This was an act of vengeance.

This was hatred.

_Forget God_, he thought to himself. _What has Ruin done to help me here? It left me. Adonalsium did nothing to save this cause when it was in danger. How could I think God was on our side? God abandoned us. God abandoned the universe, leaving us to do his work. Here I am doing it, as I have been for centuries. But now, not to serve him. Right now, I just want to kill everyone. _For a small, surreal moment, a flicker of a grin broke out on Detrare's face. Killing everyone...not because he wanted to serve Ruin, but just because he wanted to...now there was freedom. The smile was quickly wiped out with a grimace as Detrare reminded himself this wasn't a work to relish, even if it should have been.

Another gemstone shattered. Then another one. Just a few left. The light in the walls was fading. Fading like the light of the future, dying like the hope of the Fulfillment, leaving everything in darkness and stasis. Detrare stopped for a moment and took a few deep breaths. This was exhausting. Two gemstones remaining. With them intact, the walls of mists were still holding

together, but very loosely; any second, large physical structures in the fortress would be collapsing. Some people had no doubt been crushed already.

Detrare raised an axe and smashed it down on the ruby in front of him. It cracked slightly. With the other axe, he broke off some of the metal lines connected to it. He raised his arm again - even if he destroyed the entire fortress now, people could still escape. He had sent out the koloss already; hopefully they would get out. Eheron and his party too. And he was sure Kezeras and her party had gotten away. But if they could...then the remaining Knights could. Detrare was doing this to kill everyone in here, but he wouldn't mind if some of his own followers got away and continued to Ruin as best they could. His part of the Fulfillment, the Inquisition on Scadrial, had failed. But his followers, his legacy, could still carry on without him.

They had an imperative, a reason to go on. He had failed. It was time for the Fulfillment to leave him behind, but Adonalsium send that they lasted and succeeded. But one thing that was completely and totally unacceptable was letting even a single Knight of the Cosmere out of here alive and not reduced to a bubbling mess of gore. He wouldn't let any of them live. Not Saodin. Not Cole. Not Tesh. Not Rathil. Not any of their tag-alongs. Not even Samar. They were all going to die. He was going to make sure of it.

Detrare made one last strike of his axe on the final untouched gemstone, a golden-yellow one that seemed to glow brighter than any of the others, then Pushed off the broken pipes of metal in the ground to launch himself back out of the room. There were still two gemstones partially intact. The building wasn't going to collapse just yet, but it was shaking and cracking all around him. Any minute now, it would crumble to the ground. But first, he'd personally make sure every last one of those pathetic, bloody Knights was ground into oblivion.

Their end had come.

**Tesh:** "Cole." My voice is cold. It surprises me. I never talk like that, not to anyone. "Down a few hallways, through a few turns..." Back past the bloody pile of skin and bones that was my brother. "Mahshi's dead," I whisper to Cole. Why? I don't know. It's almost as if I feel he should know, as he knew Mahshi.

**Ene:** I blink. _Oh..._Mahshi, the man who'd joked with Ryker about being Lashed. Who'd been the only one to come with me to speak with the Vindicators. Who'd screamed at us all that he _needed to find his sister_. He did. And then she lost him.

I grab her hand and squeeze it.

**Cole:** _Who? _That was the first thought that went through his mind. Then Cole saw the grief in Tesh's eyes. _The one who was with her before, what was he to her? _"I'm sorry, but now isn't the time to grieve. I need you to take me to that room, there are two things in there that I need." Cole winced at the harshness; dealing with emotions had never come easily to him. It was part of what made him a bad father.

_I still have time to be a good one. Just let my children get out of this alive. _

**Tesh:** Yes...something to do. "Okay. You all right if we do this?" I ask Diona.

**Ene:** "Why wouldn't I be?" I close my eyes for a long moment and sigh. Too many of us have died. "Lead on - wait -" I fumble with my pocket before revealing the letters Quell gave me. One's labeled _Knights of the Cosmere. _"Here." I hand it to her.

**Tesh:** I take the envelope from Diona and open it, pulling out a sheet of paper. I read the paper out loud.

_Fellow Knights: _

_I write this letter in the event that I die during our attack. If you are reading this and I am still alive, give it back to me, please. _

_I thank you for all we have been through. Though we knew each other days, I could swear we knew each other much longer. You have become very good friends to me. I'll be cheering you on from the Beyond. _

_You need not mourn me. I died for a cause which I gave my last full measure of devotion, and which I believe is just. The Inquisition, I hope, has fallen. If they have not, I would encourage you to not let them corrupt any further. If they are gone, continue to protect this universe. The cosmere needs people like you. People who aren't afraid to stand for what's right. People who will not waver in the face of evil. People who, despite all their shortcomings and weaknesses, stand up, keep each other going, and prevent their mistakes from becoming the mistakes of others. _

_Again, I thank you for your time, your friendship, and your trust. I hope you continue your good work, and train a new generation to continue when you cannot. _

_Never give up. _

_\- Quell _

_P.S. The second letter is for my lab assistant, a young woman named Feonna Sebrial. She lives in the Eighth Octant of Elendel. The address is on the front of her letter. If you can, try to deliver it in person. Even if you can't, please find a way to get it to her. _

Who was this Quell? What was his purpose? Had he achieved it, or had he died trying to obtain the unobtainable? "Come on," I say. I don't want to dwell on the fact that this person gave his life to this cause. I hardly even met him.

I hold out my hand to Cole. "Can you walk?"

**Ene:** Tesh finishes reading Quell's letter. I am frozen. Paralyzed in this moment. Unmoving as his last fight shoots through my head. I'm seized with a shiver at his words; _will not waver in the face of evil_? That's not me. That has never been me.

And...he had an assistant? That's who the other letter is for. I'll have to give it to her - I doubt certain others of this group will even care much, and even those who do didn't speak with him. Tesh never even met him. She and Mahshi were already fighting elsewhere. Mahshi, dead like Quell and Dawn and Dog and Dawn's Aviar Thene and - and - _Don't think of the dead. Don't think of the dead. Don't think of HIM, don't think of the dead. _Just save everyone I can save. Before they die, like everyone dies - he swore they wouldn't stop even when he was gone and he was _right_ -

_Calm!_ I shudder and try to concentrate on what Tesh is saying. She's asking Cole if he can walk. He probably won't like the insinuation that he's weak, from his behavior just now, so I chime in. "I've got extra gold. Just if you want."

**Cole:** "I can walk, just take me to the room so I can recover my weapons." _And one other thing. _Pain still coursed through every his body at every step, but he would rather cut off a finger than show Tesh that. Right now he was willing to put aside any animosity for her, despite numerous limbs she had cut off him.

Cole took a few steps toward the door to evaluate the pain that was so different than any other he had felt recently. The pain of being burned, getting stabbed, or being shot had become long companions of Cole, but more mundane ones, like the bruises covering his body, had never been a problem with Feruchemical gold at his disposal.

**Tesh:** "All right. Come on." I watch Cole pull himself to his feet, and wave toward the hall. "Let's go kill some pincushions."

**Fire:** Rathil and Sam ran away from the chaos they'd left behind. _That_ had definitely been an experience. The two of them had been cowering behind the stone table, Sam Pulling bullets toward them. They'd needed to get ready to make a break for it. So they'd stored away their weapons, other than the fistful of mashed bullets Sam held in her hand.

The last time the people shooting at them had paused to reload, Sam had dropped one of them and _Pushed_ off of it with full force, Rathil clinging to her. As they steadily reached the top, a few people managed to finish reloading and get a few shots at them, but most missed and with the few that grazed either of them, they were both tapping the goldmind medallion to heal from them. When they breached the ceiling and were just an arm's reach away from the ground on the side without a crowd of maniacal murderers, Sam released the bullets and Pushed all of them towards them. Not only were a dozen or so people at the front of the crowd killed instantly as their own bullets tore through them, but the force of the Push had launched Rathil and Sam the opposite direction until Sam stopped Pushing and they let go of one another, collapsing to the ground and rolling to a stop.

Seconds later, voices echoed from the room below they had just left. The other gang of maniacs had entered, hoping to finish them off there. Now Rathil and Sam had the advantage of height over them. Which had given Rathil an idea. He'd pulled out his last exploding red candle, having Sam ignite the wick with her Radiant powers. Then he had quickly run to the edge, keeping in mind that there were still people on the other side of it, on the same floor as him, probably trying to retrieve the guns from their dead comrades, and peered into the hole. The crowd had begun rushing down the stairs, before stopping as the people above shouted their warnings to them.

Too late for them. Rathil chucked the candle straight for the doorway of the room, below where the most people were crowded. As it landed on someone's head, some turned in confusion to see what had fallen from the ceiling while others instantly screamed and shoved away from it. It was lost in the crowd, and Rathil ran away, hoping no one would snuff it out. He'd grinned when he heard the explosion behind and below them, the rumble vibrating through the stone ground they walked on. So they hadn't gotten to it in time. Too bad.

Too bad Rathil hadn't gotten to see it blow up and scatter the remains of those Inquisition monsters across the room.

But he wasn't waiting around. He and Sam needed to get away from there and more danger. So now they were running. He wasn't sure where, but he was sure they could figure out how to get back to an exit. Or better yet, find the others of their party. Hopefully, some had lived. There were those among them who didn't deserve to die. Some looked like they had simply been roped into this, others coming willingly because they saw it as the right thing to do. Good on them. Rathil personally didn't care what the right thing was to do here, since it's not like he had any chance of saving his blackened, pathetic soul. He told himself he was only here to destroy the manifestation of what he most hated in the cosmere. Nothing more.

_What about Sam?_ he wondered as they ran. _Why is she doing this?_ She didn't seem too keen on helping others. Maybe she just wanted to kill bad people. Maybe she did it because she thought it the right thing to do, regardless of how she cared. Why else would she ever be here? Thinking on her brought something back to his mind that had occurred to them as they were escaping. He hadn't really paid close attention to this little detail, but now that he'd seen it up front, he couldn't forget it now. When they were in that room, she had Steelpushed and Ironpulled. Only those two. As far as he'd seen, she'd never used any other metals. She wasn't a Mistborn, he was pretty sure of that. Yet she could Push _and_ Pull on metals. It was as if she had only those two abilities. How was that possible? The only way that could have worked was probably...spikes. Sam had been spiked at some point. She hadn't lived that long, so there wasn't a large time frame in which it could have happened. And considering how well she used those powers, she must have had those spikes since she was a child. How?

Rathil was about to ask out of curiosity when the shaking began. He slowed, grabbing Sam by the arm to still her. "Wait," he said, looking up. He held up his other hand and shushed her as she began to object. This was different from the shaking from below them when the candle had exploded. It was coming from all around them now. And it was…stronger. _What in ****ation? _Then the stone ground behind them cracked, splitting in multiple places. Something bad was happening, something different from everything else that had come before. Rathil cursed. "We've gotta get out of here."

**Tesh:** "Hurry!" I yell at Cole as he dashes into the room. We don't have much time; the walls are cracking and shaking. "Do what you need to do now before the whole storming building tumbles down on us!"

**Sami:** They took the wrong turn. It was a dead end. Deafening cracks were crawling their way up the walls and onto the ceiling, threatening to bring the entire structure down.

_Heck_. Part of the ceiling fell in right above her. Sam jumped aside, pressing herself against the wall and glancing over her shoulder as a chunk of stone barely grazed her back and smashed into the ground, leaving a spiderweb of cracks beneath her. She looked up, hands pressed against the wall, her back close against the fallen boulder, eyes widening as she saw the narrow chunk of stone that was left above her begin to fall.

Sam froze, unable to do anything but shut her eyes tight and wait for the inevitable blow - when the stone she was pressed against suddenly disintegrated into dust. She pitched forward, landing hard on her elbow and instinctively curling her legs in as the chunk slammed hard into the space she had been.

She winced, shuddering at her close call, and uncurled, realizing the little light left inside her - that she hadn't even realized was there - was gone, leaving her sluggish and exhausted. Releasing a breath and giving herself as sharp a push as she could manage to her feet, she was greeted by the sound of her tunic ripping and the air hitting her lower back. Stabilizing herself against the fallen slab of stone that rested against the doorway she had made, she glanced down by her feet where the remains of her tunic lay, pinned under the slab that had nearly killed her - and now separated her from Rathil.

Sam cursed.

**Fire:** Rathil coughed and groaned, pushing the wooden beam that had landed on his leg off, healing the small injury with the medallion still clutched in his hand. What was happening?

The wall. It had collapsed. He scrambled to his feet, looking around the wreckage of the room. Sam was gone. "Sam!" he bellowed. "Sam, where are you?"

**Sami:** Sam leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, still cursing under her breath. "I'm here," she yelled exhaustedly back. "Idiot ceiling almost took me out, so I took out a bit of the wall. It's blocked and I don't have any Stormlight left."

**Fire:** So she was alive, just on the other side of the wall. Rathil tried quick thinking. "Well, we...we were at a dead end. I can maybe go back the way we came. Is there a way out of the room you're in?"

**Sami:** "Yeah." Sam recognized the place. She knew the way out. "I can get out from here. I don't know about you."

**Fire:** "I'll find another way, doesn't matter. Just don't die. I don't know if we have time to find the others; we just need to get out of here." But should they look for the others? There were others here who didn't deserve to die. Tesh, Mahshi, the other tagalongs...maybe even Cole. Phoenix could get squished and rot in ****ation. "Just get going. Good luck."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix had failed. He had failed the Knights and possibly the entire cosmere. Detrare was likely still at large and a threat, and most of the Knights had been either killed or put out of commission. As far as he knew, Tesh and Cole were the only ones remaining, with the others dead. Tesh, as courageous and spirited as she was, was no match for Detrare, even in a weakened state. And Cole hadn't fully recovered from when Phoenix had left him, not yet in his right mind. Hopefully his condition improved soon.

The others he had failed. His new friend Wilberforce, as resourceful as he was, had likely not survived the encounter which had claimed the lives of both Eheron, an enemy, and Tarenwel, a friend. Though it appeared that Gaize had survived, Phoenix had heard nothing from him or Wilberforce since, which wasn't a good sign. Sam, who he had lost track of after leading the others to Tesh's cell, probably couldn't have made it out of there alone, even as brave and determined as she was. The others in Tesh's group...Phoenix wished had not even come on this suicide mission. As strong as some of them were, and even with the Mistborn Quell, against the full might of the Inquisition their chances of survival were very low, especially as Phoenix had sensed no sign of them earlier while searching the base.

And Rathil...Phoenix had especially failed him, the young man who at one point he'd been trying to befriend, even mentor. But when possessed by his evil alter ego, he'd done ghastly things to the man, as recounted to him by Preston - then left to him to die alone with no one but an executioner in the room. Even with the new powers he had supposedly gained, he didn't stand a chance against an enhanced and practiced killer. Now Saodin had merged with the Splinter of Ruin, going someplace on Roshar, likely to head the new branch of the Fulfillment. And so he had failed the cosmere also. This branch would likely pose an even greater threat than the one on Scadrial, as the protectors of Roshar were presently focused on fighting the forces of Odium.

Phoenix dwelled on these things as a penance for being a failure. He allowed his body to be dragged over the uneven terrain, compounding gold as they went to allow himself healing, which should hopefully last just long enough for him to complete his mental punishment.

Hours had passed, Phoenix silently serving out his penance for failing the Knights and the cosmere. But then unwanted thoughts started flooding his mind. What if Rathil had survived after all, and was fighting for all he was worth? What if Cole had fully recovered, and was out enjoying the flurry of battle again?

_No, no!_ Phoenix pushed these thoughts away. They were a distraction, a hope that was not very plausible...and was distracting him from focusing. But eventually the same nagging thoughts returned. What if some of the others had somehow survived, and needed him? What if Tesh had stayed behind to fight to the very end, as Phoenix knew she likely would? _No!_ They were all dead! There was no way any of the Surgefinders had survived for this long. Well, at least he hoped Tesh _somehow_ had gotten away…

Was he truly this selfish of a person? To let others stay behind and fight to the death while he went on moping until his own? Besides, if he didn't return, he would never had the chance to make things right from what his treacherous side, Saodin, had done.

Phoenix tapped nearly all the weight he had stored, cleanly knocking the Pewterarm off of her steed and flat onto the ground. He compounded gold to restore his health. Flaring pewter, the woman quickly got up and ran toward Phoenix. Having already been compounding steel, he was easily able to evade the attack. Phoenix made it back to the woman's mount and, using the spheres he found in the foolish woman's bag, Elsecalled both him and the horse back to the Inquisition's base, with him still tied to the horse.

Phoenix quickly put up a bendalloy bubble, compounded gold to replenish his reserves - which were dangerously low - and finished undoing the rope that had tethered him to the horse. He then used the rope to tether the horse to an unusual-looking plant growing nearby. _This steed may yet be useful_. Phoenix looked over at the base. It looked like it was crumbling apart from within. _There must be Investiture holding this together_, thought Phoenix. He reached out with nicrosil-enhanced bronze and noticed a concentration of what looked like mechanical Investiture he hadn't previously noticed. _Probably because it was concealed before. _

Phoenix Elsecalled into a small room that looked somewhat like a control room; it was trembling as if were about to collapse onto itself at any minute. There he found what looked like recently shattered crystals, likely being used to hold Investiture...no...the entire _fortress_ in place. Detrare. The man had truly gone _completely_ insane.

Phoenix scrambled to find a way to fix the damage. He managed to find one single crystal that hadn't received as much damage, and was still glowing from the corner of the panel. He removed one of the broken center crystals and replaced it with the still glowing crystal. The trembling slowed...but not by enough. The fortress would still come crashing down soon, but at least Phoenix had bought his fellow Knights some precious bits of time they would need to escape. And, more importantly, hopefully this action would draw the attention of a madman who needed to be dealt with once and for all.

**Fire:** Rathil ran. That glorious Light in him had long gone, no longer driving him to act and be in perpetual motion. Now he bolted down the corridors out of panic. Funny how he could be so close to ending his own life not even an hour ago, and now be so intent on survival. What had changed? _I did. I decided that I still have a few things left to live for. _He wasn't alive for himself. He was alive for the sake of others. So he could punish and kill those others who deserved it. And…

He turned into a larger hallway that led into a great hall with a huge wooden balcony overhead on one wall, seeing a few familiar faces in the middle of the room. And alive to make sure those who didn't deserve it didn't get caught in the crossfire. Tesh, standing adrift. Cole, off to the side and looking for something among corpses littered throughout the huge room. Another girl who had come with Mahshi looking for this place. It took him a moment to register that they were standing before him. They were _here_. Tesh was alive! A small spark of hope fluttered in Rathil. The Surgefinders hadn't come here in vain. Cole was alive too, which Rathil would have been grumpy about were it not for the fact that they needed as many numbers as they could get here. But where were the others?

"Hey!" Rathil called, waving. Surprisingly, a smile of relief broke onto his face, but he faltered in his steps and lost that smile when he saw their faces as they turned to look at him. That haunted, scarred look. The eyes swollen from rubbing away tears. The bruises all over that reflected the ones that must have been felt inwardly. They were broken like him, but they hadn't been like this before. They looked weaker than ever, defeated, hopeless. In that moment, Rathil realized why some of them were no longer there. No…

So many lost. So many who didn't deserve to die. Were these three all who remained, other than Sam, who he really hoped would get here soon? Mahshi...that man had shown him kindness, more so than anyone else. He was a young man determined to find his sister. Someone who had a family to look out for. He didn't deserve to die. Tarenwel...Rathil felt sick to his stomach thinking of him. He'd never liked the man, but he didn't actually want him dead. Sure, he would have preferred to give him a sock in the jaw or five, but he didn't need to die. And the others - there were more who had come. Where was Wilberforce? That man, or thing, or whatever he was had been a creature of power. How could they have lost him?

Phoenix deserved to burn in the place people too dark for ****ation belonged. The others, though...they didn't deserve this. _Only five of us left…_All hope fled from Rathil as he slowed to a stumble, finally stopping and falling to his knees as he reached them. The shaking around them faded into the background as he felt all hope for survival dwindle away at the sight of such despair. He mirrored that broken look in their eyes. He was surprised to see Cole so weak. Where had that godlike power gone? And poor Tesh...Rathil knew what it was like to lose family, to see them slaughtered before his very eyes. He didn't want others to suffer that fate. But not everyone could be saved.

And not everyone could be killed. There were still probably tons more Inquisition goons rushing around this crumbling place. Some of them had probably left, going off to spread their terror to other worlds. Those remaining here would eventually get here and kill them. Rathil would only be able to fight off a few; the other three were probably in a worse state. They'd be dead within a few minutes. Even if they weren't found, this place would still topple on them within a matter of seconds.

Rathil closed his eyes. These poor people before him had gone through enough. Seeing him running up to them, soaked in blood and clothing shredded, also probably wasn't good for their heads. "It's over," he muttered. _Maybe Sam can get out. She's a Coinshot, she'll find her way. The rest of us...are done for. _They had decimated this Inquisition, but there were still so many of them left. What did the Surgefinders and Vindicators possibly possibly think they could have accomplished, these small ragtag teams going up against a formidable group of maniacal terrorists? _It's over. _

**Tesh:** "It's over." I blink. Rathil is one of us; I can see it in him. He's felt what I've felt... one can feel what I've bottled up inside. No one; never. It seems that the very world is going to crash down on us - he can see that, and has accepted it. I know it...I do. But I'm not quite ready to accept it. I can't fight back anymore, but I have to...but I can't. Mahshi is gone. It's over.

A stone dislodges from the ceiling and clatters to the floor. More will follow. But why care? I can die here, be with Mahshi and whoever else has died trying to save me. But can I let them have given their lives for nothing? Yes. No. Yes. No. I moan, hiding my face in my hands. "Ani, I need you," I whisper.

"I don't know," comes the quiet reply.

"No. You know," I say, looking up and seeing her clad in blue. "You know we're going to die, but you want me to keep going! It's over."

"Please, Tesh. Please. I...I can't let you die. I don't know." A tear seems to trickle out of her eye. Oh, storms. The situation is so hopeless, my spren is crying.

But I can still try. I will try every last second. I will live for those who have died. I suck in a little Stormlight. Mahshi is gone. So I will fight for him. I will live so I can kill the creature who killed him.

"No, it's not over," I say to the man. "I won't let it be over until that creature is dead. He killed my brother. He has killed hundreds, maybe thousands of others. I will not stop hunting him until either he is dead, or I am."

**Sami:** Rathil left. Sam turned around, feeling his presence leave and the familiar feeling of suddenly being alone again. She sucked her breath in against her giant bruises and started out to the hallway that she somehow knew led to the eventual exit of this place.

Sam turned the corner and came face to face with a woman. Suddenly she found herself with her back slammed against the wall, her hands barely coming up and redirecting a knife heading straight for her stomach. The knife and the woman's hand slammed painfully into the wall as Sam's dulled reflexes finally kicked in, knocking the knife out of her fingers, twisting aside and slamming the woman's head against the wall, then shoving her forward against the wall opposite; her hands found the woman's neck and gave a quick twist. A sickening crack sounded as the older woman slumped against the wall, the life draining out of her eyes.

The adrenaline left her. Sam stumbled back, her eyes finding the dead woman's face. Dylai. The woman who'd taken Sam under her wing, taught her to fight her way through the world of killers. The woman who had lashed her savagely for giving a sick girl her rations. The woman who had tried and failed to beat out Sam's weaknesses.

_**"**__Get the rusts up, and for Ruin's sake stop cradling your arm. I don't care if it's broken. Pain is only an excuse to be weak and I hate excuses. Down on the ground snivelling after one blow, you pathetic weakling. We are the New Inquisition, not a bunch of nursemaids. In the real world, it's get back up or die. Life is not a rusting fairytale. Nobody will ever come to save you." _

Sam stared impassionately at Dylai's face. No doubt she'd been furious when Sam ran away, too _weak _to handle what was being thrown at her. And now Sam had given back everything Dylai had given her - the gift of death. She couldn't think anymore, didn't try to, just turned away and stumbled forward. She was totally vulnerable - her Stormlight was gone, her metal was gone, her mind numbed, even the natural stamina she depended on failing her. She kept going, the walls closing in, the cracks crawling their way through the stone like climbing vines shooting up from the ground and creeping up the wall.

Step by step, she made her way through this maze of stone, passing chunks of fallen stone, broken weapons, bodies with pools of blood still fresh beneath them. Hearing voices, seeing the rest of the group idling about inside a large room. Not even bothering to wonder why they were stopping while the structure around them was falling to pieces, she turned into the room and took in the occupants - Rathil, who was on his knees, Tesh, whose eyes showed the heavy pain and darkness of someone who had lost someone, and Cole, who looked uncharacteristically impaired and vulnerable. There was another woman too.

Sam showed her teeth in a sorry attempt to grin. "Missed me, suckers?" She knew they were going to die. She was too tired to care anymore.

**Fire:** Detrare soared upward, obsidian axes held to the side as he went skyward. Such pleasure riding on these blue lines should have brought. But there was no longer any joy. Only hate. Only vengeance. Only darkness.

He landed atop the highest battlement, swiveling around and looking for signs of life. The fortress trembled and crumbled beneath him, many sections beginning to collapse. Blast it all. This place would fall completely within the next minute at this rate, and he'd have no time to have the pleasure - no, the _necessity _\- of slaughtering all those Knights in the most brutal way possible, just as they deserved. Even so, he at least wanted a good few of them getting crushed into oblivion. And any who were left...God Beyond help them if he saw them, because no matter who it was who was able to escape this, he was bringing them down too. _Everything _was going to die now.

"Where are you?" he called tauntingly below, his voice shaking, but still carrying across the space below him. "Come out and die!" An unnatural giggle rose out of his throat. Strangely, even though all was lost, he still felt a slight twinge of delight at the thought of slaughtering the bloody intruders. "To the end," he whispered, closing his eyes and waiting for the fortress to fall.

And then...the shaking subsided. It didn't stop, but when the place should have snapped and crumbled completely, the misty walls seemed to retain a bit of their form, almost as if they were regaining it.

Rathil looked up at Tesh. All hope was gone, and she still had the will to keep fighting. Stupid. Admirable, but stupid. There was no chance of survival anymore. If they were stuck in this room, they would get crushed before they had a chance to get out. It was over. He smiled grimly at the girl. At least she'd die with hope in her heart. That made one of them. He looked over at the other girl, whose name he didn't know. She was still unresponsive, and was carrying a bird, of all things. _Well, I've seen many weird things. Now I've seen it all. _

He closed his eyes, ready to die. At least he wouldn't go out killing himself. He'd die fighting for a noble cause. The cause of destroying those who'd tried bringing ruin to the cosmere. Well...he'd done his best. Now it was over.

"Missed me, suckers?" He opened his eyes and swiveled around in shock. Sam was there, doing a very bad job of faking a smile. _No…_

He should have been happy to see her alive. But no. She wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to get out and continue their legacy. Even if she was alone, at least one was better than zero. She could continue fighting these monsters. Now she was just walking into death with the rest of them. The last shred of hope lingering in Rathil faded. He'd given up on life for himself, but he'd still kept hoping for her. Now it was done for all of them. His head drooped and he sighed, waiting for the cracking ceiling to fall on him.

And then...it didn't. The shaking stopped. Well, it didn't _completely _stop, but it faded. All of a sudden, the ceiling stopped cracking, and the balcony hanging of that far wall stopped shaking. The walls made of mist seemed to have their glow of light grow slightly brighter in them. They...weren't dying. What was going on?

And with that, the shaking calmed. Detrare frowned. This place was still ready to shatter into pieces and topple into the ground, but it was trying to hold itself together nonetheless. _What_…

The gems. Someone had _interfered with the gems_! A scream rose in Detrare's throat, bursting out as a furious roar. No, no, _no, no, NO_! This could _not_ be stopped! They'd come so far to fail completely! The very least he could do was burn it all down. What..._who_...had done this? Well, if the place wasn't falling yet, he'd at least be able to enter again, find them, and slash them to pieces. He leapt off the battlement, set to return from whence he had come. Whoever would try to halt this last contingency plan had _heck _waiting for them.

**Tesh:** "What is going on?" I scream. "The ceiling _isn't _going to collapse on us?" I begin taking deep breaths. This is all too much...just too much...I force out a smile. "Cole! Hurry up! Before the ceiling comes down on us!" I resist offering to chop off his limbs.

**Sami:** Sam dropped the useless grin and turned her gaze to Tesh, who had finally stopped screaming. "What, disappointed I made it?" she asked tiredly, forcing the corners of her mouth upward as she turned away. "Fine, let's get out of here. Rath, get the heck up if you care about living. Moping's not gonna do crem."

**Fire:** Rathil chuckled. 'Rath' was new. Even so, if they had a chance of escaping, might as well make an effort. "All right," he said, pushing himself up to his feet. "Let's get out of here." The silence was broken by a roar. A type of roar that triggered a memory. _No, please no… _

Rathil turned around, sickened to see something he hadn't seen since hundreds of years ago when he was back on Scadrial, on one of those long, winding days of wandering through the growing ash in order to find a place of freedom. A nightmare from the darkest depths of his memory. The thing he feared and despised second only to Inquisitors themselves. A koloss.

The lone blue-skinned creature barged into the room, holding up an abnormally large mace and bellowing as it made to bash them into the ground. Rathil sighed in resignation, holding up his silver dagger and his last obsidian one with shaking arms. Could the five of them, beaten as they were, stand against something like this? He forced his arms to stop shaking. If this was how he went out, then so be it.

_There_. Detrare saw him warily wandering the halls of the doomed lair. Saodin. Detrare saw him through a crack in the roof, just in the floor below. He'd have to be quick, deal a crushing blow before Saodin had the chance to react. Even if the bloody Elantrian had Fullborn powers to make himself nigh invincible, Detrare would still make him suffer in every way he knew. Detrare compounded mental speed, figuring out the right angle at which to stand. Then quickly and quietly, he leapt and Pushed off a metal window frame set in a higher battlement, moving at an inhuman speed through the crack in the roof right toward Saodin. Tapping a burst of both physical speed and strength, he roared and slammed his right axe deep into Saodin's collarbone, then drove his left axe into the right side of his rib cage. All before the blasted traitor would have time to react. He shoved him up against the wall and spat, "_Looking for me?!_"

**Ene:** A _koloss_? Why was there a koloss? _The Inquisition probably keeps them as pets or something equally messed up. _I shuddered, pulling out my knives. I wasn't very good at fighting, but these lumbering, slow monsters couldn't be great either...right? I'd rarely witnessed them, even on Scadrial. Nestling Rwendeh behind a fallen chunk of stone from the ceiling - surprisingly, everything seemed to have stopped shaking and exploding - I faced the koloss.

**Fire:** Rathil grimaced and charged forward. The blue-skinned brute went for him first, as he charged first. It lifted its mace and prepared to smash down, but Rathil instinctively knew where the blow would end up and dodged to the left. He then leapt forward and past the koloss, slashing it in the side. Not that that would do anything. The creature turned toward him, bellowing in rage at this frustration in its small-brained plans. Rathil couldn't wait to kill it. Back to the others, the koloss raised its blade again.

**Sami:** Sam groaned as she dug the last blade out of the sole of her boot. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she muttered under her breath. Maybe she did care about living...for now, anyway. She'd heard of them. She'd never actually faced one herself - or seen one for that matter. Sam grasped the blade of her knife and launched it towards the heart of the koloss. It skimmed by the woman facing it and buried itself in the thing's shoulder. She reached for another blade and cursed yet again. That was her last knife.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled even as as Detrare sunk his axes deep into him. Detrare frowned, puzzled at Phoenix's reaction.

Five minutes earlier Phoenix had made himself frail and sickly to accelerate the process of Compounding to restore his health reserves. As he did so, he thought about his next moves. When Detrare eventually arrived, he would likely be in a rage and maybe a bit reckless, even if he was tapping zinc - which would most likely be the case.

When disarming an Inquisitor, most people would go straight for the linchpin to cause the most mayhem, and possibly even an instant kill. And Detrare probably had spiked himself enough to require one to coordinate his spikes to his spiritweb. But a wise Inquisitor would always keep this part of himself the most protected. Phoenix did not want to kill Detrare. At least not yet. The man deserved to pay for his crimes against mankind, regardless of the fact that he'd inadvertently led Phoenix down a path that would lead to the fracturing of his own soul. Maybe it was because of this that Phoenix did not thirst for revenge.

And so, what he was about to do was very dangerous, but probably his best hope of defeating the madman. As Detrare swung at him, Phoenix compounded steel to grab at the area just above Detrare's knee. It was covered in armor, but Phoenix tapped pewter as he rammed a chisel he had found through a small crack, then reached in and pulled out a small brass spike. Immediately after, using nicrosil to counter the power of the Investiture in the spike, he Pushed it as far away as he could into a pile of rubble. Of course, as fast as he was, taking this kind of action meant that Phoenix could not avoid the blows that came his way. But it was worth it to remove Detrare's access to proper thought. Now, with an already enraged opponent now unable to think clearly, this was Phoenix's fight. However, fighting a berserk opponent could be rather unpredictable.

Phoenix Compounded gold to heal as fast as he could from his wounds even as he tapped pewter to shove Detrare and his axes away and out of his flesh. Phoenix then slipped out a small knife, slashed at Detrare's belt while compounding steel, and threw the belt down to the ground, shattering all the vials of metal contained within. He stepped back and faced his opponent once more, tapping electrum for determination. He would _not_ lose this fight. "Yes, I _was_ looking for you, actually. Nice of you to walk straight into my trap."


	19. Well Then

**Fire:** Detrare fell back, screaming in pain as that familiar weight in his knee was suddenly gone for the first time in centuries. It was the first spike he'd ever gotten, meant to complement his natural ability to burn zinc. He'd driven it into himself within his first few years at Silverlight, after having driven it through a poor Ferring's chest in the first murder he'd ever committed. Now that spike was gone. Rust Saodin! He wasn't just destroying the future of the Fulfillment. Now he was destroying Detrare's own history. At least there was still a store of zinc remaining in him. He could still burn what remained of that to enhance his mental speed, but that was the last of it he would ever be able to Compound.

Detrare Compounded that speed, then tapped steel in a short burst and rolled to his feet, snarling at Saodin. "Well, don't you feel so clever, sacrificing your honors, values, and adherence to God's mandate to be a slave to logic! Show me _Passion_!" He dove forward, swinging his axes wildly. Saodin, no doubt assisted by Compounding, effortlessly dodged many of them and skipped around Detrare, stabbing him and punching him with powerful jabs here and there, slicing his skin and breaking his bones.

Detrare ignored those petty swipes and healed them away instantly, trying to focus on landing a hit on the traitor. "How does it feel to be a monster?" he growled. "To betray everything you know and give up all sense of action? You are lost. When you were lost before, I _found you_! I helped you find meaning in the will of a God! And you continued to fight against that God anyway!"

**Phoenix:** Phoenix continued his flurry around Detrare, using Compounded steel. He could sense the man was scanning for an opening, so was cautious not to expose himself in any way. "I was a monster, yes," Phoenix responded. "I did terrible things, many in the name of science and progress. I betrayed my previous legacy, the pride of noble Elantris, long before I first met you. I was already lost! You say I betrayed everything I know, but in reality I am simply returning to the roots that I lost long ago. I am finally rid of that old part of me now, thanks in part to you.

My new purpose now, found anew with these Knights of the Cosmere, is found in protecting the cosmere from threats like you and your devotion to a mere portion of a deity that only exists in Splintered form apart from its intended whole, in Harmony. You who claim to know and serve Devotion know _nothing_ of true Devotion, whose Investiture runs through my own blood!" Phoenix suddenly realized he had partially succumbed, ever so slightly, to Detrare's subtle Rioting without even realizing it. His Investiture stores must be running dangerously low for that to be happening. He _had_ become too impassioned, and, realizing it but a moment too late, allowed Detrare to get a steel-enhanced swipe with his axe at his left clavicle again.

Unfortunately, that strike also nicked his carotid artery. Phoenix had to use _way_ more healing than normal to take care of that blow. He had enough for maybe perhaps one more major healing and that was it. Phoenix watched carefully as Detrare, for a very brief moment, let his guard down - face showing surprise that his ploy had worked. Phoenix quickly Compounded steel, what little he had left, and yanked the large pewter spike out of Detrare's upper torso with his own pewter-enhanced tug, discarding the spike. With his other hand, he quickly impaled Detrare's heart with his blade, making sure he sliced the aorta and two of the chambers to cost Detrare the most healing.

Just as he did so, Detrare sliced at his own belt and threw it to the side, smashing all of his vials and also removing his access to his remaining spheres. Hopefully after that blow Detrare would be just as low on gold as he was. Fortunately, at the very least Detrare would not be Compounding steel for much longer. Phoenix steeled himself again. He would not allow this fiend to get to him twice!

**Tesh:** I draw my sword, stepping to the side as a koloss reaches for me. I swing my blade down, chopping the arm off right below the elbow. "Get out!" I bellow, Lashing myself upward with half a Lashing. I jump and stab the creature in its eye, then rip my sword from the socket as the koloss falls to the ground.

**Fire:** Detrare cried out in panic as his Feruchemical store of strength vanished completely. No! Not again! He hurriedly healed from the deep stab wound, though it took a lot out of his gold stores. At least he still had lots of them. But Saodin was steadily picking away at those stores. He needed to die soon in order for Detrare to be able to heal after that. Even if it needed to be quick instead of deservedly agonizing.

First he needed to weaken the man. Tapping speed, he darted forward and removed Saodin's belt with a swipe, then smashed it into the ground. While still moving at an enhanced speed, he rammed the remaining axe still in his hand deep into Saodin's gut, then left it there, diving for his other axe left discarded on the ground. The Elantrian was too quick, however. He simply threw aside the axe stabbed into him with enhanced strength, sending it flying beyond Detrare's reach, then grabbed him and threw him into the wall.

Detrare growled, healing instantly. He wouldn't let himself lose consciousness like the last time Phoenix had thrown him headfirst into a wall. He turned around to face him. Elantrian. How could one of them be defeated? Detrare hurriedly Compounded thinking speed, drawing upon the last stores of it he'd ever have access to. Not physical breakage, but mental. Saodin had been broken before. He was fragile enough that it took little to no time to bring him back to the correct side, even if he'd turned back not even an hour later. What Devotion was that?

Detrare spoke slowly and carefully as he pressed his back to the wall, as if to regain his breath. He stored speed ever so slightly. "As one who is blessed with the very essence of Devotion, I'm surprised that you are completely lacking in it. You change allegiances like sets of clothing, having loyalty to one group in one moment and to an opposing viewpoint the next. You don't know what it's like to care, to love a child, to have pride in the work of people you hold dear. You are the poorest example of Devotion I can think of. You're a disgrace to your kind. You're a failure. Maybe you should follow the advice you gave to that Rathil fellow, you waste of Devotion's power."

True Devotion...Devotion. Elantrians. What better way to combat an Elantrian who deserved nothing less than a painful annihilation than the one Elantrian who demonstrated more Devotion to this cause than anyone else? Everyone else had failed Detrare today, but Eheron was still there for him. There was that one last thread to hold onto. Detrare stopped storing and leaned forward. "You want to kill me? Go ahead and try! Keep beating away! Unleash your Passion and Ruin me as best you can! That's all you have left to do, you *******!"

He tapped his last stores of speed, ran forward, and Pushed himself off the bits of metal scattered all over the floor, out through the hole in the roof. He needed to go in the direction he knew Eheron's party had gone. Saodin was doubtlessly faster and catching up at that very moment, but Detrare continued Pushing, trying to get there. Not just because Eheron was the only one who could help him slay Saodin now, and not just to prove to Saodin what a real example of Devotion looked like before killing him. The deeper, hidden reason was that he needed to see that his boy was still doing his work to Fulfill Adonalsium's will. Detrare's world had shattered today, and he sought the last trace of stability he could think of. That brilliant, Devoted Elantrian Exemplar.

"Let's have a chase, you and I," he whispered to Saodin, who he knew wasn't far behind.

As the blue brute fell forward onto its hands and knees, Rathil slammed both his knives into its lower back with satisfaction. Down with the blasted creature! The koloss tumbled face-first to the ground, brought down by injuries from Rathil, Tesh, and Sam, and landed right in front of the girl whose name he didn't know. The creature groaned, still slightly alive, but unable to get back up.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled as Detrare made a perfectly logical argument to Phoenix that should have broken him, or at the very least distracted him for the rest of the fight. Except Detrare had no idea that he was truly reborn now, quite literally a new man. Just as Phoenix was about to respond, Detrare Pushed himself through the ceiling with a burst of speed. Were those his last remaining reserves, or had Phoenix guessed wrong on which pewter spike had stolen speed? Also, did the man even realize that his vials were gone when deciding to Push himself out of the room? _Well, possibly not, if he was trying to conserve his remaining mental thought. _

Phoenix dashed up after him. He would not let this traitor to mankind get away that easily. Phoenix caught up to him easily using Compounded speed, although his reserves were dangerously low. He had to even that playing field. Phoenix tapped nicrosil to give him an extra burst, moving faster than Detrare for one instant as he swiftly removed another pewter spike from Detrare's hip. Noticing no other pewter spikes on the man, Phoenix hoped that this one had gifted him his speed.

Phoenix zipped up and sent a pewter-enhanced punch right to Detrare's face, intentionally maiming the mask of Adonalsium that Detrare wore as large chunks broke off from it. "That mask you wear isn't the mask of a god. It is a rare architectural find, yes, but not a representation of holiness by any means; rather a representation of an ancient vessel to a very powerful entity, now shattered across the cosmere. The God Beyond is the only one worth serving, he who is above in power than even Adonalsium. And he would not approve of what you have done to his creation."

Phoenix dealt another jab, this time using using ChayShan, targeting Detrare's femoral artery. He could almost feel the vessel burst. Phoenix dodged a crazed counterattack by Detrare, likely in rage for taking his speed from him. Hopefully he still had some semblance of mental capacity, enough to hear Phoenix out. "As for your attempt to wound my pride, I'll have you know that I am _literally_ a new person now. My personality has been split, and I am what you may call the good part of what remains. I have the most in common with my Elantrian heritage, which my other half abandoned. By the way, he's now possessed your precious Splinter and has probably supplanted you as head of the Fulfillment by now. He's traveling with one or your minions even as we speak."

Detrare showed the briefest hint of surprise, and Phoenix took the opportunity to knock one of the axes out of Detrare's hands, using nicrosil-enhanced pewter that Detrare surely had lost the ability to counter at this point. The axe flew out of his hands and into the mists surrounding the fortress below. Phoenix Pushed back off of Detrare's other axe and took a breath before yelling, "What are you looking for out here anyway? Some other last-resort trick I should know about?"

**Fire:** This was all too much to take in. Another spike, gone. The ability to store any more speed, gone. And...the Splinter? It was _gone_? Detrare seethed at the thought of that. Saodin had sent it away with...with minions of his? The Splinter had gone with one of the groups he'd sent out? A laugh suddenly burst out of him as he realized how fortuitous that was. Saodin may have naively claimed that he was a new person and all, but he had nonetheless sent the Splinter in the gemstone to another world instead of getting rid of it. He'd inadvertently helped the Fulfillment.

If the Splinter now had a mind attached to take charge, who would become a new leader in Detrare's place, how was that supposed to break his spirits? He already knew it had failed here on Scadrial and that the portion of the Fulfillment he led was practically gone. His leadership was obsolete. He had failed as a leader. If anything, it was good to know that there was a bit more of a chance for the Fulfillment's legacy to succeed elsewhere. It hurt to have lost another spike, and the strike to his leg did some real damage. He laughed anyway. "You think to break me, but you've already failed! We've all failed! Our world has ended, and all you can do is pretend you've changed in time to meet your maker!"

He swung again as Saodin came closer, slashing the axe through his face and slicing his cheek open. Of course, the Elantrian healed right away, but it felt good to do damage. "You're nothing new; you're a coward!" he screamed. "You always were! You never dared to do what we know to be the will of God, limiting yourself for the purpose of mundane _research_!" Detrare stopped Pushing as he reached the area of the fortress directed toward Sel, letting himself glide through the air until he crashed into the slanted wooden rooftop. Some of it splintered beneath him, and he healed away all wooden slivers and broken bones. His gold stores really were getting dangerously low.

He stumbled to his feet, looking up at Saodin as the Elantrian landed on the roof. "What know you of _God_?! You have no proof of the God Beyond's existence, while everything around you is proof of Adonalsium's divinity. Here we are in living proof of Ruin's reality!" He touched his face where the mask had torn off, feeling at the parts where the aluminum effigy remained. Not the true face of Adonalsium, but a good representation. "Well, at least you can prove it to yourself once I send you to the Beyond!" he screamed. "Just let me kill you and answer your question!" He laughed and ran to Saodin, swinging his remaining obsidian axe. Just a minute before moving on. He wanted to make Saodin suffer on his own as much as he could. "Ruin, perish, and die!" Rational thought was pointless now. It was just time to _kill_.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled. It appeared that thought had finally left his foe and the man was now blindly attacking with rage. Perfect. Now Phoenix would simply attack from the direction Detrare least suspected it - above. Tapping speed, Phoenix Pushed off of the roof, then, hovering directly above Detrare, tapped heavily on weight and crushed Detrare squarely on the head, buckling the roof underneath him and sending them both crashing back into the fortress below. Phoenix quickly tapped gold, and - burning bendalloy to conserve his remaining steel reserves - quickly kicked Detrare's other axe out of his hands.

After returning to normal speed, Phoenix became acutely aware of shouts and fighting from below. It appeared they had landed on a platform overlooking a large room, almost as if someone had used the area to give speeches from. Down below were the rest of the Knights, fighting koloss. Just then, he heard some doors burst from below, four more koloss entering the room and bellowing. Phoenix turned back to Detrare, who seemed to have a harder time at healing as he slowly made his way to his feet. What should he do? The Knights obviously needed him, but Detrare was still a threat who must be dealt with!

Knowing Detrare to be out of vials from earlier, Phoenix tapped most of his remaining speed to reach a hand in and Leech Detrare of all his remaining metals. With no vials to replenish his reserves, that might just buy Phoenix enough time. He turned toward the Knights and began studying the battle, trying to determine how best to proceed.

**Fire:** All metals gone. Even the gold he so unconsciously Compounded. And all the zinc he would ever be able to use Feruchemically again unless he got that spike back. Unlikely, as this whole place would collapse at any moment. All his Allomantic reserves...gone. Feruchemical stores, quite nearly gone. Shouting...fighting...muffled sounds all around. More of the mask had broken off of him, but everything was still muffled.

_No_. Detrare struggled to get to his feet, a pain throbbing in his head from his skull not having fully healed. He readied himself to tap his small golden spike that he'd been storing health in while reveling just a couple hours ago. Then hesitated. He could tap it all now, or...idiot. He would have thought of this already if he was still able to tap zinc. He would _not _give Saodin the satisfaction of killing him! Not before he died himself! Detrare reached behind and tore the little spike out of his calf, then forced himself to swallow it. It was painful, but he was more than used to feeling pain. Exemplifying Ruin was guaranteed to do that. A necessary sacrifice. He felt it cut through his throat as it went down; he'd soon begin choking on his own blood.

He saw a corpse nearby and desperately crawled over to it. Saodin was looking away, looking down from...the balcony. They were in this room. The one in which he had burned his tapestry and announced the procession of the Fulfillment just earlier tonight. That felt so long ago. Detrare ripped a metal vial of the body of his comrade, not caring what metal was in it. Something to _drink_ to force it down…He gulped it down, trying not to choke. So... close...closer... His hands curled into fists, his teeth clenched. Passion kept him alive. He couldn't die now. Not with so much hate burning within him. He sought a reserve. How long would it take to...there. He could sense it. _Power_.

Detrare burned away at the the spike, all wounds healing instantly. And still more to spare. He growled and leapt to his feet, turning to Saodin, seeing what the Elantrian saw below the balcony...more chaos. A few of those pesky Knights remained below, fighting to bring down a koloss. Detrare stepped forward to see, just a few steps behind Saodin. More koloss burst into the room from one entrance, roaring and charging, fully armed. From the other end of the room, a crowd of his comrades finally entered, led by what looked to be a few particularly Devoted and Passionate members of the Fulfillment. So a few still remained. They would die a glorious death.

Those few Knights...Rathil, Teshani, Samar, Cole, whoever the last one with them was, they were cornered, weakened, outnumbered. Their fate was certain. Anticipation rose in Detrare's chest; he smiled at the sight. "You can't save them," he whispered. "It's too late. All your Knights will die." All of the Knights were going to die now, and Detrare had a front row viewing to the party. This was one good turn in the face of so much horror and loss he'd suffered today. Vengeance would be dealt.

The last of the Knights below would die brutal deaths, and even if Saodin killed him now, he wouldn't be able to finish off everyone else alone, might not even be able to get out before the blasted place finally collapsed. Detrare laughed at the thoughtfulness and concern so evident on Saodin's face. He wanted so desperately to do something to save them, but he was so far out of his league. Truly a failure in one final way. "Nothing but a failure..." The koloss bore down on those last few Knights, standing exhausted in the center of the room. Detrare grinned manically. Not out of joy or relief. Out of satisfaction of blood being shed. "It's over."

And then the voice spoke in his mind. _That is enough_, the voice said calmly. It rang through Detrare's head, echoing throughout his mind and filling his soul, as if it echoed across the entire room. It was impossible for anyone not to hear this voice, was it not? It was the voice of something deeply Connected to him, something that was more of Ruin than anything else in the cosmere, not that it would have done anything with that boundless power. Harmony.

"No, please, _NO_!" Detrare screamed, grabbing at his head. No, this couldn't be! The Splinter had protected them for so long! Already, he felt an outside force trying to grab hold of him and take over his movements. For some reason, it couldn't quite yet, as it it were still blocked by something. Detrare was able to push it off, but the force still exerted itself over him. What was going on? He stumbled and groaned, drifting over to Saodin, who still watched the scene below with a pained expression. Good. Best that he felt pain. Detrare would take that pain away soon…after adding so much more to it. As he grew closer, the oppressive force seemed to be pushed away a bit more as he came closer to the Elantrian. What…

There was no time to think on that. _Harmony_ was here. The force of solitary Ruin that was that Splinter had kept such a force at bay for so long, but now that bubble of protection from the oppressive force of order had been burst, discarded…Shattered. Detrare was experiencing a Shattering of his own. He had been all this night. Harmony would only add to it - he would be the final death of the Inquisition. Down below, the four koloss bearing down on the few remaining Knights stumbled to a stop.

On the opposite side of the room, the crowd of people stopped their charge and reacted to what Detrare knew could only be the voice of Harmony. Some spun around and flailed wildly as if to attack whatever spoke to them at any angle. Others grabbed at their heads and screamed for it to stop. Others began attacking themselves, or turned on one another and started attacking others. Some few continued running, ignoring this oppressive voice that pressed into their minds that they needed to stop and that enough had been done.

Suddenly, the koloss screamed and charged again, raising their weapons. Detrare leaned forward on the balcony. What would _they_ do? "Ruin…" he whispered. "Kill…" At the very least, the Knights of the Cosmere would be over with. The koloss ran to the Knights...and continued past them, _charging at their own comrades in the Fulfillment_. Detrare watched in horror as the human members of the Inquisition were taken by surprise even in their furious bloodlust and weren't able to dodge or counter the bludgeoning strikes of the koloss brutes. The blue skinned beasts swung wildly and cut people down dozens at a time. One of them managed to get taken down by a lucky Inquisition comrade who used his Metallic Art abilities to fight back, but soon all the ones who charged were mercilessly cut down.

Three more koloss appeared from under the balcony, charging towards their former allies just behind those first four. The six of them - the last in all of the Fulfillment - mowed down the crowd, slashing and chopping and decimating them. "Why?!"

Almost regretfully, the voice in his head replied. _You have Fulfilled your purpose. Just as there must be Ruin, there must be Preservation. _

"I did your job for you because you refused to do anything!"

_You took it too far, unfortunately. There must be a balance. The powers that be have decided it. And just as destruction may be brought through acts of preserving, an act of Ruin will go toward future Preservation. I am sorry that I must do this. _

"Please… this is all I have…"

_I am sorry_, Harmony repeated.

Below, the koloss continued to brutally cut down what could have been the last unified group of Inquisition members in this fortress. Without context, Detrare would have considered it a glorious and beautiful act of Ruin. But now…he found that he did not desire Ruin. Not that of those he cared for, those he led, and those he loved. And with that, Detrare had an epiphany.

Even if the Fulfillment had succeeded and driven their blaze of annihilation across the cosmere to bring Ruin to all they could, he wouldn't have been able to deal with the loss of his dear friends in it, even if he had previously told himself he could handle it. For all his Devotion to the cause, he was still human and found himself unable to let go of the things he cared about, even for a greater purpose. Tonight, the events he had feared but told himself he would come to accept had happened all in a few hours and forced him to confront that he couldn't accept them.

And so, Detrare watched a violent act of Ruin be committed with _misery_ instead of delight for the first time in centuries. For the first time ever, he feared the being that was Harmony. Detrare had thought him harmless, ineffective. But Harmony wasn't impotent, as Detrare once thought he was. He still brought Ruin; he just did it in the name of Preservation and vise versa. He couldn't accept only Ruin.

Harmony was destroying his last hopes right in front of him. And Detrare couldn't stop it. But did he want to stop it? It was, after all, an act of Ruin. He had already been trying to destroy this entire fortress anyway, so everyone would have died had Saodin and then Harmony not already interfered. Either way, there would be death and destruction. How could a sight like this terrify him when he was only moments from committing such a genocide on these very people himself? Who was he to fault Harmony for only finishing what he had started in that moment of desperation?

Another part of his mind recoiled at himself. Had he really tried doing that? Exterminating even his own companions? Bringing this whole place down with everyone in it, his own comrades who had shown such Devotion to him and their cause thus far? Yet another part of his mind laughed with glee. As long as there was Ruin, what did it matter? All things would eventually end eventually. Who was the monster? Who was the great destroyer? Who was Ruin? What was the point of all this?

All belief was gone. Detrare didn't know what to think, to believe. He desired Ruin for those he hated, but for the first time he didn't want Ruin to succeed on a grand scale. His compass had broken. What was there to believe, to follow? He only contradicted himself now! Had he ever really believed what was inherently right? There were many who would call him a monster, but he only did what he knew to be God's will. Now it was all over. Whatever came next couldn't be known.

Detrare truly had only one thing left he could possibly think of doing in all this madness and confusion. Kill those responsible for starting it.

Rathil had stood ready to die, ready to fight the bloody koloss to the death. It would have a been a fine enough ending. He was long overdue for deserving death. But then…the impossible happened. Just as they were surrounded by enemies, sure that they would all die, the Inquisition monsters had suddenly turned on each other. What was this?

Rathil stood, dumbfounded, too numb to feel joy at their salvation or rage at not having his glorious death. He just felt numb. And confused. He watched the koloss slaughter the crowd with a blank expression. "I really thought this night couldn't get any madder," he mumbled. "Glad to find myself proved wrong." It was like the hand of God had come upon them to save them in their most desperate hour. Rathil found himself inwardly saying a small prayer of thanks to a god he had never worshiped nor believed in before. The others stood there with him, watching in confusion. What…

Rathil turned his head up as if to look into the sky. God…Harmony. The being they'd told him about who was both Preservation and Ruin in one, the power who was once a simple Terris steward helping the skaa rebellion. Rathil had left Luthadel before he found out how that rebellion turned out, but the stories he'd heard in the past couple weeks while learning about Scadrial had taught him enough. And he was certain that out of nowhere, Harmony had stepped in and saved them. There was no other answer to it. Why hadn't he done so before? Was it because of that reddish purple gemstone screwing around with the world? What had happened to that thing? Whatever the case, Rathil found himself questioning his decision to be an agnostic. He closed his eyes and sighed. _Well, what now?_ They should probably get out of here. "We should real -"

A voice came from above. Rathil opened his eyes and turned his gaze from the ceiling, looking at the balcony...and saw Detrare and Phoenix there. The numbness was replaced with rage. _Those two. _At that moment, Rathil really wished he still had a gun with him. And that the two of them were close enough to death that one shot could take them out. Did any of the people the koloss were killing have guns on them? Rathil hoped so. Because now was his chance to get back at Phoenix for betraying everyone and pushing him to the point of darkest depression, and Detrare for starting this bloody mess in the first place.

But…they weren't standing side by side as if they were with each other - they seemed to be _fighting_ one another.

Detrare had no weapons on hand. They'd all been broken. So he screamed and simply began beating away at Saodin with his fists. The Elantrian was caught off guard and didn't block the first blow to the face, but he quickly recovered and continued to dodge, doing so more slowly than before as if to compensate for draining his speed stores. However, he seemed more desperate. When Detrare looked closer, he saw fear in Saodin's eyes. _He's running low on gold, _Detrare realized. A twisted smile broke out of him.

"Running low on time?" he laughed. It was deranged of him to laugh at a time like this. But the world hadn't been kind to his soul these past few hours. Saodin responded by fighting back at him. They were now tangling in a desperate fistfight, grappling and kicking and punching like brawlers in a bar. They were low on their stores, and no longer using their Metallic Art abilities other than slight bits of gold healing. But Detrare had to use his last gold store sparingly, as did Saodin, who would surely run out any second. "I can see your fear," he growled, spitting blood in the traitor's face. "I will make you suffer for all this and you know it. Where is your God Beyond now? He won't save you from _me_."

**Phoenix:** It was never a good idea to get into a fistfight with your enemy. It was the best way to leave a fight up to chance rather than a sound strategy using various tools at your disposal. The problem was, there weren't that many tools left. True, he had plenty of pewter stores, but if he used that he could become neglectful of any wounds received and may miss a critical moment to use up the last of his remaining healing. His speed was gone, but at least his enemy's was also. They were both _extremely_ low on gold. And so he decided to use the one useful tool he had left. Words.

He sparred with Detrare, taking small nicks here and there as he thought of how to best approach this, compounding zinc as he fought. "So. How far do things need to actually get for you to finally see that you've lost? Your minions are getting absolutely crushed down there."

Detrare hit him extra hard in the face, but not enough to merit healing. He would have to be careful not to ire the man _too_ much.

"All of your generals are either defeated or have fled. Your army is being destroyed below by koloss you thought you controlled. All your...what did your diary call them? Ah yes, Exemplars. A nice fancy name for an attempted recreation of an Inquisitor of old. Have any of them come to your rescue? I know of your attempt to send groups to other planets. All but one ragtag group headed to Roshar appears to have failed in their mission, at least according to what I felt through the gemstone." Phoenix could feel the rage in Detrare's eyes, and burned the last of his Allomantic bendalloy in order to jump back out of the way of the forceful attack that followed.

"Ah, the gemstone. The Splinter, along with the former part of me who now inhabits it, will be dealt with, along with your listener general who couldn't wait to get away from your failure here. I have many connections on Roshar. I know many in the newly founded Knights Radiant." Phoenix compounded electrum to remove any doubt in his mind before adding, "That group, too, will fail in its goal. I swear it."

**Fire:** "Shut up!" Detrare screamed. "Just _shut up!_" He shoved Phoenix away and began running. He refused to believe that. Saodin was just goading him, trying to break him further. There was still one more chance. One more thread to hold onto. "This isn't over," he growled, forcing a smile onto his face. He looked at the gaping hole in the wall at the nearby building that existed as a stable outside of the fortress, right next to the hall. He looked back at Saodin, spitting at him again. "We've all lost today. But there is one thing left for me. You have nothing, and you will die just like all the rest of us."

Detrare ran to the hole in the wall and leapt out of the building. He fell a little ways and landed hard on the wooden roof. His legs cracked and he healed them right away, almost all his gold healing now gone. The roof cracked as well, groaning under him, but there was a hole in the roof. He stumbled to that hole. That one last light…

Rathil didn't know what to think of what he'd just seen, but Detrare and Phoenix looked like they were too busy fighting to care about the fortress falling down around them. Because the shaking _was_ picking up again. This place was collapsing. Hopefully the leader of these monsters and the storming traitor got crushed in the process - Rathil and the rest of them needed to get out of here while no one was focusing on them.

"Sam," he barked. "Grab Cole or leave him behind. Either way, you're getting out of here. _Now_." He walked over to Tesh and the other girl, who was holding onto her. He recognized that haunted look in their eyes, the horror of losing something - someone - they would never have back. Rathil may have nearly lost himself today...but these young women had each lost someone close to them. He rested his hands on their shoulders, speaking a little more softly. "I'm sorry. You can't save everyone. But right now, you need to save yourselves. Let's go." Holding to their shoulders, he steered them away out of the room, glancing back at Sam to say, "Come on. We don't have much time left."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix smiled. Finally the man was at the point of mental breakdown; time to see what this 'one last hope' was all about. Phoenix looked back at the Knights below before turning to follow Detrare. Rathil was leading the Knights out of the room, and hopefully outside of the crumbling fortress all together. _Good move_, Phoenix thought, even as a huge column collapsed into the area where the Knights had just been gathered not a moment before.

Turning back, Phoenix sprinted to the hole Detrare had just fled and looked down. He had landed on a rooftop and was stumbling toward a hole in the roof. Phoenix leapt out of the hole and began storing weight, gently gliding down onto a neighboring rooftop to the one Detrare was. "So, what's so important down here?" Phoenix called out. "By the way, we haven't lost. The Knights have just escaped your poorly executed trap!"

**Fire:** "You think I care?" Detrare whispered to himself. "It's over for all of you. I can still kill you. You're not the only wielder of Devotion's power."

He and Eheron could get out of here, couldn't they? And do what, rebuild? At the very least, the Exemplar of Devotion could help him kill the bloody traitor Saodin. If it wasn't for him taking the gemstone, Harmony wouldn't have been able to stop this. Killing was all that was left for Detrare. At least that wasn't too different from what he'd sought for the last few hundred years. Only now, instead of destroying the cosmere, he just wanted to destroy a select few. And he wouldn't stop until they were all dead. No matter what.

He looked down through the hole in the roof to see...death. _No. _Corpses everywhere. Some of them looked like something had torn them apart. Some had died from gunshot wounds. What could have done this?

Something caught his eye. Something...inhuman. Translucent. Ethereal. A humanoid figure shrouded in darkness. It rested against the wall, immobile, a peculiar birdlike creature lying by it. What in ****ation? This thing had done this. It had to have been associated with the Knights, another crony of theirs - by far the strangest. It was a Cognitive Shadow unlike anything that he'd ever seen before. It was captivating...and infuriating. For Detrare realized that it was probably the very thing that had sneaked into the fortress and disabled the warning fabrials in the first place. This creature had started it all. Better it was dead, in that case. Another Knight gone the way of the Beyond. Assuming it was dead. Detrare couldn't tell.

He tore his gaze off it, worrying for the inevitable and forcing it out of his mind, refusing to acknowledge it even though he'd secretly suspected it to be true ever since Saodin had first mentioned it. "Adonalsium, God Beyond, please no..."

Two desiccated corpses lay in the center of the room. One was unfamiliar, probably one of the Knights, a stone spike through his throat. And he lay on top of..._NO. _Not him. Eheron. The truest Exemplar of Devotion. The closest of Detrare's family. The last glimmer of light in a world of horror and loss. Snuffed out. He felt pressured to vomit as he looked hopelessly at Eheron's body. He'd been scissored through in many places, probably by those weird shadow beings. And to top it all off was a gunshot wound to the head. Those two Knights together had…

"NOOO!" Detrare screamed, falling to his knees. He screamed again. No words. No words to describe this pain. This was the excision of one's soul beyond that of Hemalurgy. This was all heart, all love, all Devotion...gone. Cut away. Devotion was dead. He lay dead before Detrare's eyes. He continued screaming incoherently, finally retching. And weeping. And sobbing. All thoughts of hate and killing and destruction fled from his mind as he wept for his child. It was Bloodbath all over again. But worse. This was the son who'd been with him for so long, loving his surrogate father just as much as the father loved the son.

Detrare could never have let him go. He would have given up all Ruin in the cosmere just to have his family back. What had he done to deserve this? He had only done God's will, had he not? Then why did the universe punish him by taking everything he had bit by bit in a matter of hours?! Why was there this pain! What way was there to...end the pain?

Detrare closed his eyes and stayed kneeling, his voice raw and scratched from screaming so much. He didn't bother healing that. There was no healing of spiritual wounds, so he wouldn't heal at all. Saodin walked up behind him, probably to make another snide comment about his victory. This was no victory. This was just death for all. These Knights had lost so much on this foolish endeavor themselves. No one had won anything tonight. This was nothing but death. Nothing but Ruin. For once, the voice in Detrare's head telling him that was a good thing was silent. He had no care for it anymore. Ruin had failed him, just as everything had failed him and he had failed everything.

And so, kneeling on a side roof of a fortress of death hanging in the space between moments of the Cognitive Realm, floating in the mists of thought and death...Detrare just gave up. It was over.


	20. We're Not Taking This Well

**Sami:** Sam shoved Cole out the door with her after Rathil and the others.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix peered in the hole in the rooftop and was taken aback for a moment in shock at the huge amount of bodies. After a brief reflection, Phoenix realized this was the scene from the vision the gemstone had given him earlier, of Tarenwel's untimely demise along with one of Detrare's Exemplars. Detrare's own shock was apparent, as the man at first just stared at the scene before bellowing and falling to his knees, screaming and sobbing in anguish. Phoenix almost pitied the man he had once called a friend. _Almost_.

Phoenix gazed down at the bodies, until his eye caught an almost translucent form among them that Phoenix immediately recognized. No. It couldn't be. He should have survived. How did this happen? Phoenix turned inward and mourned the loss by attempting to find understanding. A Cognitive Shadow shouldn't have been able to be destroyed. Unless...had something happened that prompted Wilberforce to manifest in the Physical Realm, as he was able to do on Roshar? Perhaps the manifestation had something to do with his unusual spren, who did manifest here? If that happened and he had been physically killed, then after death his Shadow may have been pulled toward the Beyond.

Phoenix looked away. He'd held out hope that his friend had somehow survived due to his nature, but now that hope had been brutally crushed before his eyes. All of this because of that _monster. _Phoenix looked back to Detrare with a righteous anger; however, that fury faded somewhat at the scene of Detrare slumped over and crying. He didn't even seem to notice Phoenix's presence, or perhaps didn't care if he did.

Not knowing what else to do, Phoenix jumped down below, grabbed a knapsack from one of the fallen which contained some vials, then jumped back up while storing weight. He tapped pewter, grabbed Detrare, slung him over his back, and leapt down off of the roof of the fortress, which was completing its final collapse. Phoenix Pushed on some metal from the debris and looked around for the horse he had left earlier. Spotting the mount, he angled his way down to land beside it, Detrare in tow. Behind him, he heard a loud shudder as the fortress finished its collapse. Anyone who wasn't already out of there would not be coming out alive. Eventually, the fortress would dissolve into nothingness as the thought that once held it together was spent.

After landing beside the horse, Phoenix heaved Detrare onto the saddle and began to bind him to the horse. The defeated man didn't resist at all - all he did was mumble quietly to himself, breaking into small sobbing fits from time to time as Phoenix worked on the knots. Just as he finished, he sensed with his tin a group of people approaching and quickly moved the horse to the side behind an outcropping. He then reached into the horse's pack to pull out some of the spare spheres he had stored away for an emergency like this, ready to Elsecall away. He heard yells and several footsteps from the group begin to approach rapidly, so they must've sensed him as well. However, he recognized the voices from those shouts...it was the Knights! So some had gotten away after all!

Before the footsteps approaching could get too close, Phoenix brought himself and the mount back into view, to where they could visibly see the defeated Detrare tied onto the steed. "Peace, friends!", he cried, just as he realized that one of the Knights in front of him was Rathil. Phoenix looked down for a moment, ashamed, then looked back up and spoke softly. "It's over. Justice will be served."

**Fire:** As the other koloss continued chasing the people or dying, one of them rumbled through the hallway, not knowing where to go or what to do. It just knew that it needed to go forward, that there was something that needed it to do something. It couldn't do anything about that; it didn't think about that. It just needed to go forward. But stop; now it needed to stop and look to the right, into a gap in the wall that led downward to a hole in the ground. A small light came out of that hole.

Without thinking - just acting from the control of this outer force - it picked up a large rock from the rubble and chucked it into that darkness below. A shattering sound echoed from the hole, and the light disappeared. Something broke? What did it break?

As the final gemstone holding the place together shattered, all the integrity of the structure ceased to exist. The light that pulsed through the walls and floors and ceilings of mist faded away in an instant, and the solidified misty structure melted into a a malleable liquid-gaseous substance, rushing down the sides of the building in floods and into the foggy ground. With the structure gone, the rest of the fortress promptly collapsed, crumbling in on itself. Walls of wood shattered, blocks of stone crumbled, beams of metal bent completely out of shape, and everything came falling down. Towers and battlements collapsed in succession; some walls fell inward, others fell outward; tons of falling debris broke through the ground floor to collapse into the basements and crush them too.

It was a marvelous, beautiful destruction, systematically planned by the most genius architects the Inquisition had ever included in its ranks. A mighty fortress designed to have a great fall. And now, after over two hundred years of its standing alone in the Expanse of the Vapors and harboring an organization bent on destroying as much of the cosmere as possible, the structure fell. And great was its fall. Just like the fall of the New Inquisition and the Fulfillment. No building remained standing. No beam of wood went unsplintered. No stone block was left uncracked. All of it was destroyed.

The shockwave and dust of its collapse blew over the few who had escaped the fall and were running for their lives, now at a reasonably safe distance from the fortress. They weathered the force of the fall, struggling to stand, then were engulfed in dust. The Knights who trudged forward were lost in it for a moment. Eventually, that cloud of dust settled, drifting away into the endless black sky. As the dust parted before them, there stood Phoenix with a bound Detrare sitting atop a horse, attempting to defend himself.

Rathil had no idea what the deal was with Detrare, but he looked to have been tied down by Phoenix. That didn't make sense, but then again, none of tonight had made much sense. All he knew was that one murderous ******* had been defeated, and the other was sitting on a horse right in front of them.

Rathil's hand fidgeted, tapping at the knife in his pocket. Trying to hold in his rage, he said through gritted teeth, "You know, if I had a gun in my hand right now, I'd be forced to make a very tough decision. Whether to shoot you in the mouth, the heart, or the spheres."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix met Rathil's threat with a calm stare. He'd known this was an inevitable conversation, and thought through it multiple times. "You have every right to be angry, to want to kill me even. From your point of view, it must seem strange that the one who betrayed the Knights and tortured you is the very one who has brought the Inquisition's leader in for justice. Know this: I was not in control of my faculties when you were tortured. I have a troubled past, and previously there was an evil lurking deep inside of me. It was able to take control of me at the most inopportune time. But that evil is gone now, my soul split off from it. That evil is the one who tortured you, not I, and I am finally free from it."

Rathil hesitated, not certain if he was willing to accept anything of what Phoenix had to say. Phoenix continued, one hand still on his sphere pouch, Compounding gold as he spoke, slowly replenishing his nearly completely depleted supplies. "I know this seems far-fetched, but you must believe me. This evil, who now calls itself by my former name, Saodin, is headed to Roshar with the fragments of the New Inquisition and will surely try to take control of the organization there. He...has become one with the Splinter, which was the root cause of the fanaticism of those here. He is very knowledgeable, and now extremely powerful."

Phoenix looked at all the Knights before continuing. "This new threat may test the Knights more than any other, and I can't help but feel responsible for the unleashing of this new evil. If I'd just thought through things a bit more...but no, no dwelling on the past, that would be folly." Phoenix looked directly at Rathil again. "I say all of this to say...I'm sorry. And I am especially sorry that you had to be a victim in all of this."

**Tesh:** "It's over," I whisper. "Finally." I pull away from Diona, walking away from where Rathil was talking with Phoenix. "Ani, I left him behind."

"He's gone."

"I know."

I imagine Mahshi's mutilated corpse being buried by the stone and walk away into the trees. I will no longer put people in danger. I will stay away from the people I love. No one else deserves to die. No. Detrare deserves to die, as the one who killed my brother. But he's probably already dead. I need to talk to Phoenix. Not right now; but soon. Soon.

**Ene:** I let Rathil guide me out the door before shaking free, surprised to bump into Alonze, Remembrance, and the others we'd rescued. Somehow they had found us. All together, there were about twenty of us against...I glanced backward, recalling the fight that I'd just participated in. A knife right past my face, a koloss half-dead before I finished it, blood everywhere. I shuddered.

As Fulfillment members started to follow us through, Alonze stepped forward. "We'll hold them off." His eyes searched the former prisoners. "Is anyone else well enough?" As cries rose, men and women joined him. The younger or those with bad injuries stayed behind, but his side grew. "Let's try to get out alive," he announced to them, and they rushed as one to meet the oncoming wave, a few of whom seemed to be trying to escape more than anything. The rumbling had gotten worse.

I gathered the remainder, Rwendeh poking my hair, and followed Tesh, Sam, and Cole as they made their way out.

The fortress crashed completely not long after we ran. Coughing in the sea of dust that washed us, we finally broke free to find Phoenix. A horse. And a bald man, tied and mumbling. Phoenix looked excited to see us at first, but that quickly turned to shame. While he and Rathil had their exchange - not my business, so I didn't intervene - Tesh walked a little ways away, whispering to her honorspren. I followed after a moment. "Tesh?"

**Fire:** Rathil shook his head. "I don't have the strength to deal with this now. But believe me, scholar," he said, pointing at Phoenix, "you do this again, and I try to kill you with all that's left in me. Maybe I'll just try it anyway. But for now...let's just get the ****ation out of this place."

He looked at Tesh and her friend walk aside to a group of glassy looking trees, then to the the group of people gathered behind them he hadn't been paying attention to before. Freed prisoners, it seemed. And there were still others who'd gotten out. Harmony would deal with them, now that it was in his power. Rathil just wanted to get back to the physical world. Especially considering where he was…

_Storms_, he realized. _I survived this. I was so sure I wouldn't. That means I can see Scadrial again. _Not the other half of the world he'd never known about. The place where his home had been. Luthadel. The fields of ash, which he'd heard were completely changed. The thought of it made Rathil well up with emotion. Tears threatened to melt away his simmering rage and leak out of him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. "Bah, let's just get out of here. Back to the Physical Realm."

**Phoenix:** Phoenix nodded. "Very well. Everyone gather around to get back to the Physical Realm." Everyone got in close and Phoenix Elsecalled them all back to the Physical Realm - and to the sight of a massacre.

Bodies and limbs were scattered everywhere along the rocky terrain. Many of the bodies had large, oversized gashes in their torsos not made by a conventional weapon. Phoenix scanned the corpses; these were New Inquisition members. Following the trail of bodies, it looked like they were headed to Luthadel. But who stopped their trek - and how? Phoenix continued scanning the corpses and debris for answers.

**Tesh:** I stumble back in shock at the sight of the bodies. But even though a sight worse than anything that I have ever seen lays before me, a small part of my mind whispers to me. _Now. Go now. _I breathe in a small amount of Stormlight and Lash myself into the air, then down, and jerk to a stop. Below me, I see a trail of bodies.

And a lone figure.

I dismiss both Lashings and Lash myself toward the figure. I touch down a few feet away. "Mask," I breathe.

**Sami:** Sam dragged Cole with her, leaving him under a tree near the others. Then she left, needing to be away from everyone or she would...she didn't know what. She had no energy to threaten violence anymore; all she needed was to escape, to find something that took her completely away from everything that had just happened. She walked, and kept walking, unconsciously heading in the direction of the city. Getting drunk sounded nice.

Sam's feet carried her down dark streets, through twisting alleys, and she found herself in front of a door she recognized. Pushing it open, a wave of music and voices met her, entwined with the smell of sweat and exhilaration. She pushed herself through the crowd to the counter, gesturing the bartender over. It was time to forget. She would deal with her problems later.

**Fire:** Rathil saw what Tesh saw. Two bodies lying on top of one another. The one on the bottom...was an Inquisitor. Who was stirring. The hate bloomed within Rathil again. That mind-numbing _loathing _for these creatures he'd had since he was only nine years old. The monsters he'd always wanted to slaughter, but never gotten the chance to. Every time before, the opportunity had been seized from him. Except now that chance had come.

Rathil walked up behind Tesh, pulling out his aluminum-silver knife. The special one, only to be used for the most special purposes. _Looks like we missed one… _

Best to keep the girl away from the mess that was about to happen. She'd seen enough. He shoved her aside - not too hard - and knelt down, knife raised. Ready to slash the monster through the throat and finally finish off one of these spike-eyed beasts.

Consciousness returns. Foggily, but it does nonetheless. Shapes of blue manifest before me. Above is a man holding a knife, his clothing in tatters and soaked in blood. _Looks like I missed one_, I think. This minion seems particularly more bloodthirsty than the ones who came before him. Can I fight him? We will see.

**Ene:** Phoenix Elsecalled us over, and I raised a hand to my lips. That was...a lot of corpses. A _lot_ of death. I shuddered, then noticed Tesh and Rathil breaking off; I followed them.

**Tesh:** Rathil shoves past me, holding a blade. He holds it to Mask's throat. _No. _I summon Ani and hold the Blade a fraction of an inch from Rathil's neck. "Drop it," I growl.

**Fire:** Rathil looked up at her in disbelief. "What?" he said, voice rasping. "You'd want to spare one of these beasts? They all need to die! What reason does this thing have to live?"

I can barely lift my arms. The knife is at my neck. Then more blue lines come into view and motion. I see…

Tesh. _Tesh_.

I look to her, wishing I could speak. But I am only a broken thing now. I cannot speak, walk, or even raise my arms. She's defending me; I hear her speak. "Drop. It." The words echo faintly in my head. My head starts throbbing, and I can't hear this madman's reply. She hasn't killed him yet, even as she holds her great Blade to his throat. Why? She did so to me. Then again, I deserved it.

**Tesh:** "He's a friend. I thought I would never see him again. And this wasn't his doing - he's no monster." _Forget what he has done. It wasn't him who did all of that. _

**Fire:** Rathil's grip on the knife tightened. "What in ****ation are you talking abo -"

And then he remembered. The day they'd met, Tesh had mentioned meeting an Inquisitor she claimed had been in control of itself who had gone places with her. She hadn't known his fate, but he'd probably died. It seemed she'd understated her relationship with the thing. Yet he was alive. Rathil had the perfect chance to finish the beast off. This was finally his first genuine chance in all his centuries of life to kill one of the things he'd hated most.

But if he did, she'd kill him. Was it worth it? They'd finished off the Inquisition; he had nothing left to live for. He could go out in one final moment of triumph, finally fulfilling a lifelong wish in his last second of life. The knife was so close. Nothing left to live for...except...except there...was.

Storm it, but in that moment in that base when he'd sworn that Ideal, he'd had an epiphany. He hadn't just been healed of his physical injuries - well, most of them - but there was some spiritual healing too, as if those voices screaming for him to kill himself at all times were silenced, or at least dimmed. He felt a bit less hopeless. And he supposed there was one thing left to live for. One more thing to see. Life.

He was on a dusty red plain on the surface of the world he'd thought destroyed for so long, but it was so unassuming and dead, there was nothing worthwhile to see here. Rathil hadn't been overcome with emotion at seeing this landscape. He wanted to see _life_. A city of people and plants. He'd heard legends of plants with green in the ancient days of this world that grew colorful feather-like leaves. Flowers, they'd been called. He wanted to see if those were real here. And he wanted to see that there was actually life here once again. He wanted to see Luthadel again, or whatever had taken its place.

So now he had a choice. Fulfill a dark lifelong desire in an instant and be killed for it...or live a bit longer to see the colorful light of a world restored. Infuriatingly, this was a _tough choice_. He was so close.

The Inquisitor slowly raised its arm toward Tesh, looking at her, staring blankly and saying nothing. The knife scraped at its neck as it turned its head. And it smiled. Not the deranged leer he'd seen from so many of these monsters. One of companionship. _This thing, this..._man_...is a friend of Tesh. _

Teshani had helped him find purpose again, even if it was in a rival organization. She'd introduced him to the Knights of the Cosmere and led him on this journey. He'd only known her for a day, but she'd shown kindness to him despite his rudeness and rambling. And her brother...Rathil closed his eyes, growling to himself. She deserved better than this. Enough had died today. If this man was a friend of Tesh...then that was enough to live for.

"Fine," he whispered, lifting the aluminum-silver dagger away from the Inquisitor's neck and tossing it aside. Tesh moved her Blade away from his neck, and Rathil got up and stalked away to pick his knife back up and sit down on the dry ground. He'd given up his one chance to finally accomplish a lifelong dream. He felt a bit of regret at that, but he knew it was the right thing to have done. It was about time he did something right in his life.

No more death. Not to those who deserved better, at least. Only death to those who deserved it. It occurred to Rathil that he now had a new Ideal for himself. He had no idea if it was one of those Radiant Ideals, but it would suffice for him for now. _I will bring destruction to those who would destroy. _

I smile at Tesh. After a moment, the man moves away. I look to the side at a pool of blood near my head. I let my fingers dip into it and use the remaining strength in the half of my body I can feel to roll onto my side and write on the ground for Tesh to see. She kneels down by me. I finish writing and lie back again, the words before her. _Harmony gave me a second chance. Thank you for giving me the first. _

**Ene:** I walk a little closer to Tesh and Rathil, seeing that they've stopped pointing weapons around. That's reassuring. Who's this half-dead person near them? Tesh looks distressed, and I shiver. "Hey, Tesh? You okay?"

**Tesh:** "Anytime," I whisper, tears coming to my eyes. I lay a hand on Mask's shoulder. "I'm going to leave soon. I keep causing more destruction than I fix. But I'll be watching, and when you can, I want you to find me. You'll do that, right?" I whisper. This is real, now. I'm going to leave. I'll be watching these people I love so much, but I won't hurt them anymore. This is what I need to do.

I snap up, Shardblade in hand, pointing at...Diona? "Sorry," I mutter, dismissing the Blade. Ani flutters around my head. "I - no, I'm not okay."

**Ene:** I flinch away a little at the threat, but Tesh recognizes me quickly. I step forward again. "Can I help? Who's this?"

**Tesh:** "Go get someone with a gold medallion. If it's not charged, find someone who can charge it. This is an old friend." I kneel down next to Mask as Diona hurries away. "I'll see you again, all right? I'm going to be watching over these people. Stay with them, then come find me. I'll be close by. I lost everything today except these people; they've saved me countless times. I'm going to leave as soon as I get revenge. I -" I cut off as I glance at Ani. _I will protect even those I hate..._ "No. I'm leaving now." _Thirty seconds, _I think to myself. _If thirty seconds go by without a response, then I leave, but I'll wait thirty seconds. Please say something. _

As I wait, I remember a piece of paper and pull it out of a pocket. I didn't lose it. Even after what happened these last few weeks, I still have it. As I read it, tears come into my eyes.

_Friends, _

_I was born and raised with darkness all around me. I haven't known what it feels like to do good in the world until now. You have shown me that there is more in life than simply living. I will always remember that, even in the Beyond. Because while I did not live to the fullest during my life, the ending is where it counts. _

_Do not remember me. But you can remember what I did. I kept running. And I still am. If you feel a swift breeze rushing by, just know it's me moving faster than ever before. I am free, because of you all. Thank you, friends… _

_Your most humble of servants, _

_Mathis - Knight of the Wind _

I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, but I think I feel a swift but gentle breeze blow over the field. Holding the rumpled and torn paper close to me, kneeling next to an old friend, I feel an older friend with me.

As I wait for a sign of movement from Mask, I begin to weep. The thirty seconds are forgotten. "Please. Say something." I don't know if I'm talking to Mask or Mathis. Maybe both.

**Fire:** I nod my head in understanding, reaching the hand not soaked in blood to grasp her own. "Thank you," I mouth. Did Harmony orchestrate our reunion? Her return to me was exactly what I needed, even though I didn't even know I needed it.

**Tesh:** I look up from the ground as Mask grips my hand. _Thank you, _he mouths.

"Anytime," I whisper again, still crying softly. I tuck the letter into my pocket, and stand. "I'll see you soon." I take a deep breath, then a sharp one, and Stormlight fills me from the remaining infused spheres in my pockets. I Lash myself into the sky, falling upward, but this freedom holds no joy for me at the moment. I just left it all behind. I add a Lashing down and jerk to a stop. The line of corpses stretches beneath me, and next to it lies Mask. A small group of people, made minuscule by the distance, are a ways away. I can't hurt them anymore.

I take a breath, then dismiss my Lashings and Lash myself to the city on the horizon. That is undoubtedly where they'll go. I should be able to sell my dun spheres for the chips of gemstones in them. Hopefully I'll get enough money to buy new clothes and some supplies. When the Knights decide to head back to Roshar, I will follow at a distance.

**Phoenix:** Phoenix had been watching the interaction from afar while warily keeping an eye on his captive, who appeared for the moment lost in his thoughts. After realizing the dying Inquisitor was indeed the one called Mask, Phoenix had begun compounding gold, storing the excess health reserves into a depleted gold medallion. He watched Tesh lift into the sky. Now that all this was over, she likely needed some time to herself. He couldn't fault her for that.

Phoenix finished charging the goldmind, then approached the former Inquisitor, compounding pewter, and easily lifted the bodies that had piled on top of the man. Afterward, he placed the gold medallion in his hands. "Draw on this. It will heal your wounds."

**Mist:** Dust roiled from the ruins around Dawn, illuminated by the slanting half-light. His shadow dropped towards the sallow sky's medallion, and he felt himself faintly pulled along. A small bird seemed to circle closer to the light, then disappeared into its brilliance. He sat beside a bald man in V-patterned robes, watching the Knights leave. A presence he had touched many times in prayer - Harmony. Sazed, as his father had called him. His father, Sazed had told him, had actually been a kandra serving offworld. He had fallen for an Eelakin woman and asked Sazed to make him a mortal Feruchemist, so that he could live out his life at her side. "But I ruined that, didn't I?" Dawn asked, head bowed.

Sazed paused for a moment, working over the words. "When your father died, he told me to tell you he loved you. To tell you he didn't blame you for what had happened."

Memories flashed behind Dawn's eyes, and more salt ran down his cheeks. He focused on the obsidian horizon. No, he had borne the knife, his father had been killed by his hand. He couldn't forgive him, he couldn't...but, it would seem, he had. Dawn struggled with this information. All this time fearing his own failure, mourning his mistakes. In the end though, he had found closure. He would not be remembered as a murderer. Dawn had found something he never truly expected.

A legacy.

The man called Sazed spoke again, eyes fixed on Dawn. "He also asked me to grant you a favor. It is the least I can do for his service, and your dedication."

"You've already done so much for the Knights."

"I have done what was necessary, I think."

Dawn then thought of life, and of his family, at peace on First of the Sun. Death pulled at him, where Paileah, Midday, and his father rested Beyond. He could not reach out to any one of them. One person who had made a difference in his life remained close, however. She still struggled, still stood in the crossfires of fate. After the hand she had lent him at the end, he could only hope to repay her. "Diona. Watch out for her, for me."

"I shall do the best I can."

Dawn smiled then. He had done what _he_ could. They would remember him. Not his deeds, not his mistakes, not his crimes. His legacy was one of sacrifice, and if that sacrifice made a difference, than he could die apart from vanity's claws. So he took to the wing, soaring up and Beyond the ashen sky's hollow heart.

And all his tears were those of joy.

**Fire:** I take the coin in my hand. Medallion? What does he mean? Wait. Draw on this. Could it be? At the moment I realize it, I feel a storage coming from the metalmind. How? I cannot tap gold. But it's past time to try making sense of the cosmere; I tap the medallion. Feeling returns to me, pain surging through the legs I lost feeling in only minutes ago. Or hours, however long it's been. But as I continue to tap this goldmind, all the wounds throbbing with pain are fading away. After a few moments, I can feel my legs again. All these wounds sapping the life out of me have closed themselves, knitting themselves up and moving back into place. I stretch my legs and flex my hands, breathing out in relief. The metalmind falls to the ground, expended.

But was everything healed? Even...I try to speak, to force out a "thank you" to this strange man who graciously offered me the treasure of healing. No sound comes out. I can only wheeze, the air scratching through my throat. I close my mouth. So that didn't heal; it's permanent. I truly never will speak again. I am forever the Speaker of Silence. I am…I look to the distance a few yards away at the bent, mangled mask lying on the ground. Right.

I shake my head. I don't need to wear it to be what I am now. My past life and name are gone forever now. They ended when the first spike ripped into me. That feels like an eternity ago...and then there was the hook. I've had that from the start as well. In the mess of blood that was the other Inquisitor's head, the chained hook lays bent out of shape. So that's both the mask and the hook I've lost now. The objects that were once my identity. Now that I am free of them, free of this Inquisition, and perhaps even free of Harmony, I can create my own identity - but I'll keep the name. It's a painful reminder that I need to hold with me, a reminder of all the horrors I committed in the frenzy of weeks before. And even the atrocities I have committed now. I may have saved a large group of people by slaughtering this bunch of madmen, but I have slaughtered many here nonetheless. And then there were those few who escaped. _What is to be done about them?_ I feel a spike of worry.

_They have been dealt with,_ Harmony's voice whispers in my mind.

I breathe out. _Am I finished now?_ I ask him.

_For now,_ he responds. _You have done enough. Your part here has been completed. I may have need for you again. _

_And my freedom? _

A pause. Then, with a soft, paternal tone, Harmony says, _It is yours. _

Freedom. Then it is so. I will never be free from my past, but I at least will be free from anyone's direct control, so long as I avoid civilization forevermore. I'll leave, find a new life and purpose, separate myself from any of these people, any of these organizations. I must find my freedom and solitude elsewhere. I will leave behind a life of blood and death for one of true silence. Through it all, I am Mask.

**Ene:** I went to ask someone for help, not sure who, but Phoenix beat me to it. He was a decent guy. I watched as he headed over to Tesh's unnamed friend, then was distracted as Rwendeh fluttered a wing on my shoulder. I nudged her absently with my head, letting one hand fall to my side, where - there was nothing. Not what I expected, anyway. On the ground sprouted a patch of dusty grass, bursting with more color than Roughs grass should. I could feel the source of the discrepancy, somehow showing me the precise shade of each petal, making me appreciate the different tones of the wind. I hated the Breaths. They, like the bird on my shoulder, the bomb in my pocket, and my all-there self, only reminded me of what I'd lost.

**Fire:** Detrare woke. He was lying on something very uncomfortably; it was a moving horse. He started and felt a panic rising in him, a swelling of Passionate rage and a desire to release his fury to everyone around him, just like he'd taught himself for so many years. Who did this? How did he get there? Before, he was…in that room where Eheron was. And at that memory, he remembered everything else that had happened to him this night. The fury fizzled out in a heartbeat, replaced by nothing. He felt nothing now.

Odd, how immense grief and torture could bring about such a result. When a roiling mass of bubbling emotional sludge finally boiled over the brim of the mental pot, to the point where it couldn't be contained because so many gallons had been shoved in so quickly, it should make a dangerous mess of fury and agony everywhere. It shouldn't just evaporate away, leaving the pot empty save for a few drips of the memory of emotion. But that was how he felt now. He had lost, the Fulfillment had lost, even those Knights had lost; there was no victory this day, only pain and defeat for all. That's all this universe was.

The whole cosmere was nothing but a state of Ruin, but not just physically. In a universe so full of uncertainty, agony, rage, and despair, there needed to be ideals. There needed to be something that was true despite it all, a firm foundation amidst all the unreasonable chaos. Those had been Devotion, Passion, and Ruin. Those were his ideals. Everything else had failed him. He needed to Fulfill those Intents because that's all there was left to this universe. Those hadn't failed him until now. Now, he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure of his faith in these select few Shards of the great god Adonalsium, and that uncertainty terrified him. What was he to do now? If anything, he knew his legacy would at least live on. Nothing else would.

Detrare raised his head groggily. He still didn't know where he was. He was on a plain; it looked familiar. Ah, yes, this was the relative location in the Physical Realm adjacent to where the fortress had been. There were corpses all over the field, too. He recognized them: they were his own comrades in the Fulfillment. They'd all died before reaching their destination of Luthadel. And Bloodbath was with them…Wait. Bloodbath. Was he here with them now? Among the corpses?

With a cry, Detrare flung himself from the back of the horse, landing maladroitly on the ground with a painful jolt to his legs. "Saun!" he blurted, stumbling forward and looking around. There were people around him, and they seemed surprised by him being awake and walking, but he didn't care. He was scouring the ground, looking for his son. "Bloodbath, please…" he mumbled, not even sure what he was doing. His boy was dead, he knew that already. He'd gone through that soul-tearing grief once before. Perhaps it was just closure. He needed to see his son one more time.

And there he saw it, the body that seized all his attention. He cared not for the sight of anything around him, for he was running to the familiar red-and-black robes and large, mighty figure. He gagged when he saw the utter lack of a head on the corpse, a red pulpy mess scattered around the neck, two soaked spikes in the middle of it. Detrare fell to his knees, almost collapsing on his son's corpse. "Bloodbath. Saun…" he whispered. He searched for misery, for longing, for tears, for a swell of compassion for his dear boy who'd just wanted to do what he loved because he thought it was right. Yet still, he felt nothing. Like someone or something had cut all emotion out of him and thrown it into the Beyond. The most he could muster was a twinge of longing for something that now seemed long lost.

Here the remains of his son lay. Detrare found closure there.

He looked around himself to see the other myriad corpses, and other people walking among them, away from them, or just sitting down and staring blankly. Some of them looked at him with trepidation, hatred, or even pity. He noticed Rathil, Cole, a few unfamiliar faces who may have been Knights as well, a few of the prisoners he'd kept locked up in the dungeons, and even some of his own comrades in the Fulfillment. Standing or sitting with their eyes closed, whispering to themselves or to God or to Harmony or whatever. What?

They'd given up, joined the prisoners and the Knights, given control of their hearts and minds over to Harmony, perhaps making a bargain to change their ways if he would get out of their heads. Detrare grunted in disgust. Such weak wills. Where was their Devotion? These were people who had Devoted their entire lives to this cause and known no other, yet they threw it all away at a moment's notice just when the going got tough? They were raised and bred to fight to the bitter end! Had so many of them never felt true dedication to this godly cause? Had he ever truly known them? Did they have _any_ Devotion to this?

Looking a little ways off, he saw Saodin and someone dressed in black next to him. They were looking at him with the same eyes of pity, but the one in black had no eyes. Detrare realized with a shock it was an Inquisitor. A very Exemplar of Ruin still alive. Impossible. What was even more impossible was the fact that Detrare recognized the creature to be someone he knew to be dead. _Mask_. The very same unwitting yet greatly successful Exemplar who had murdered many and turned a city on itself to raze it to the earth. He _lived_. This couldn't be. As Detrare mulled over that, he realized an even more sickening truth. Someone had to have killed all the comrades he'd sent on this expedition, someone strong enough to slay dozens and be able to even kill an Inquisitor. Another Inquisitor, perhaps.

Mask had made this carnage; _he_ had killed Bloodbath. Harmony must have played some cheat to bring him back from the dead, his Connection to the Splinter severed by death so that Detrare wouldn't even know. Unbelievable. Horrid. His own Exemplar had done this to his own people. Exemplars of Ruin themselves turning on their cause and murdering his family? Comrades and former friends giving up the cause they'd followed all their lives to bargain for their sanity? A cause felled partially by its own people, who were supposed to believe in it?

Detrare looked up at the sky. At that moment, he knew the sickening truth, a truth that shattered his world once again and destroyed another vestige of stability in his grasp of reality. Devotion truly was dead. To believe in such a thing was stupidity when he knew for sure now how false that was. The Shard itself was not only dead, the beloved Elantrian Exemplar of that Intent was not only dead - everything it represented was as well. There was no love, no loyalty, no unity. Devotion truly. Was. Dead. What was left in the world for Detrare? He didn't know. If he lost everything, he hoped to at least have his family, if nothing else. Now even they were gone, slaughtered by an insensitive cause who thought themselves Honorable.

He looked back at Bloodbath's body. One of his final lifelines to happiness, to family, permanently gone. Was there nothing he could do about that to keep them with him? Nothing - perhaps something…Detrare looked at one of the spikes laying in a pool of blood, soaked red all over, its Investiture still preserved. Bloodbath's eye spike. A part of him. Detrare's hand trembled as he reached down to it, grabbing it firmly. _Even if he's gone forever…I can always have a part of my son with me. _

With a scream that tore out of his raw, sore throat, Detrare lifted the bloody steel object, lowered his head, and drove the spike right into his left eye, his scream becoming one of pain. _Now_ he felt the pain.

It was a solemn party that departed the dusty red plain of the outer Roughs. There had been no victory today. Both sides of this great conflict had suffered immense loss. Those remaining in the Fulfillment had had their desire for Ruin turned upon themselves, this branch of the interstellar organization all but eliminated on this sphere. Those who remained in its ranks, either in the Physical or Cognitive Realms, were subdued by Harmony to keep his voice out of their heads and maintain their sanity; killed themselves to end that oppressive voice in their heads, which threatened to take control of them; or ran madly away from the scene to do one of the first two later on.

Of the remaining Surgefinders, not a single one of them hadn't lost someone dear and close to them, or even merely a friend. There was no joy to be found in their achievement, saving Scadrial as they had done. The living Vindicators had all but disbanded, parting separate ways. Whether to another city as Sam and Rathil had gone or on a trek back to Roshar with the Surgefinders to seek refuge in Urithiru as Phoenix and Cole journeyed, they were separated for now. Perhaps they would meet again; perhaps the Surgefinders would meet new recruits and renew their numbers, spreading their message of protection to all those who would reach outside of their own world, wanting to know of the cosmere beyond. The future was uncertain. The present was bloody and scarring. The past was deep, dark, and full of pain for everyone. What happened next was up to each of them.

After Detrare impaled his eye with Bloodbath's spike, he fell to the ground with a groan of agony, writhing in pain. The others rushed to subdue him and bind him tightly once again, debating whether or not to kill him there and then. But before that debate could go anywhere, Cole interrupted with the news he'd learned. Not only had Detrare known the whereabouts of Cole's children, but he had sent a hunting party to kidnap them and was holding them ransom. If Detrare died now, Cole would never know where his sons had been taken. Their lives would be forfeit, as would the life of whoever made an attempt to kill Detrare.

For all that had failed in the mad leader of the Fulfillment's plans, his one survival contingency had worked. He was under the protection of a father who would stop at nothing to get his children back, a father who was likely the most powerful human in the cosmere. No one could kill Detrare now, since he was the only living soul who knew where that hunting party had gone in those early hours. Cole personally threatened to tear apart anyone who laid a finger on Detrare with intent of harm, and considering how used he was to pain by now, it was almost guaranteed that Cole wouldn't be able to torture the answer out of him. Despite it all, Detrare would live. For the sake of those two insignificant innocents, he would have to.

But what for? He had lost everything! Everyone he knew and cared about was gone. His mission had failed. He had failed to bring Ruin to this world, and he knew with confirmation that Devotion was now dead. It seemed folly to want to live on. And yet...Detrare realized there was one thing that had not failed him. One Shard of God who still lived and acted according to its will. One divine Intent to believe in, the only semblance of a foundation left for Detrare to hold onto in this universe. He had called it Passion, according to interpretation. But he now knew that to be wrong. Such a term was too generalized. It truly was what he knew it to be all along. Hatred.

Odium.

The intense hate one may feel toward another as a result of their despicable actions; in this case, multiple others. Yes, there was one thing keeping Detrare alive now, an ember that simmered in his soul, stoked and waiting, waiting, waiting, for the right time to be ignited. Vengeance. Vengeance upon these Knights. If he had failed in his mission and had only his legacy to carry on without him, then all that was left for him was a personal vendetta. One that burned within him and would continue to burn until it would become his one solitary goal in the remainder of his life. The slaughtering of every last one of these Knights of the Cosmere.

Odium burned within him like Invested gold, but he would bridle this Passion for now. Waiting. Biding his time for when the true time for vengeance came. And when such an opportunity arose, he would personally kill each and every one of these Knights, everyone they cared about, and everyone affiliated with them, slowly and painfully, one by one, until all that remained of them was the memory in his mind. And if any one of them managed to kill him in the effort, then they had given their life to Cole's wrath anyway. There was no other way out of this. No matter what would happen, they would all burn for what they had done to him. They would suffer a fate worse than whatever ****ation could ever offer them. He would make them suffer mentally, emotionally, Spiritually, and physically. They would pay the price for doing what they had to his family and cause, and any who may survive him or Cole would lose anyway, having become so tarnished by the death and destruction they'd witnessed and caused that they would be no better than they considered him. And then they would be overrun by what remained of the Fulfillment anyway.

Could the souls of these forlorn Knights be saved? Could his own find redemption? It didn't matter. Redemption meant nothing to Detrare now, not after what they had done to him. All that was left was vengeance. Hate. Odium. Ruining the cosmere was lost to Detrare now. At the very least, he could still bring such a fate to the Knights of the Cosmere.

Now he just needed to wait.

Rathil looked around him as the solemn party walked onward. A field of brown and red, dotted by a few plants here and there, some of them brown and some of them...green. Green plants were no surprise to him on Roshar, as he'd been there for so long, but they were nonexistent on Scadrial. As far as he knew, at least. And this was Scadrial. Plants of green were only a myth here. He needed to see more. He needed to see where Luthadel had once been. He needed to see what civilization and life had become on here on the world he was born into, the broken world he'd left nearly three hundred years ago. Tomorrow. Tonight, he just needed rest.

Detrare walked in the middle of the group, hands bound, surrounded by Knights on every side. Seeing the spike through his eye just made Rathil hate him more. He had hated this man for creating all those Inquisitors and starting this blitz of destruction, but now he had become one of the very creatures Rathil hated above all else. He wanted nothing more than to take his silver-aluminum dagger and slit Detrare's throat. But if he did that, Cole would kill him in the blink of an eye. Detrare seemed aware of this newfound protection, for he'd begun speaking freely.

"Where is Samar?" he asked, voice scratchy.

"None of your business," Rathil whispered.

"Has she left your ranks, as she did ours?"

"What are you talking about?" Rathil spat.

"Oh, you don't know?" the half-Inquisitor said with a grim smile. "Has she told you so little about herself?"

_No…_Rathil ignored him. The man was goading them.

"Where do you think she got her abilities? You must at least know about her spikes."

"Shut up." _Don't let it be true. I…I made a promise. To kill them all. _

"What?" Detrare said, looking over at Rathil with his one remaining eye. "Afraid to accept the truth that she was once part of the Fulfillment? Poor girl. Left us out of fear before she even reached maturity. She did a good job of hiding that from herself. I wish she was here now. I would have told her about the slave trade she'd been caught up in that led her here. Yes, slave trading led her to be with us. You seek to destroy us, yet you never noticed when your own ranks included us."

Rathil balled his hand into a fist.

"First Saodin, then Samar! You really don't know each other that well, it would seem. This man you call Phoenix founded the New Inquisition with me, and Samar was born into…"

"Shut up!" Rathil yelled, raising his fist - then stopped himself. He looked over at Cole, who stared him down with a calm intensity, the unspoken threat looming dark in his eyes. His expression made it clear. _Make one move, and you die before you see me coming. _Rathil felt a tiny twinge of pity for the man. To have your own children in mortal danger was unthinkable. This was why Rathil had never had any kids, and never would.

"Oh, don't worry. I don't mean to push more guilt onto them."

_Ignore him. _

After a pause, Detrare cocked his head as if something had just occurred to him. "Well, not just the two of them, I mean. They aren't the only ones."

_Just ignore him. He's making stuff up. _Even if his claims about Sam were true, and Rathil feared they would be, he figured he could bend his promise. Yes, he'd sworn to kill anyone and everything within or related to this New Inquisition, but...not her. Whatever her past, he'd make an exception for her. As far as he knew, he could trust her. He _would _trust her.

"Yes, those two aren't the only ones of the Fulfillment in your ranks."

Rathil heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Enough. I know about Tesh's masked Inquisitor friend. Sure, he served you before, but look where he is now. He killed a bunch of you freaks. I'd say that makes up for being one of you."

"You see, that's where you're wrong," Detrare said, a smile creeping onto his face. He looked as if he'd just experienced an epiphany. "And I'm not just talking about him. I'm talking about all of you."

"Ignore this *******, everyone," Rathil said, squeezing his eyes shut. "He's just trying to get to us more than he has."

But Detrare wasn't done yet. "You don't seem to understand the purpose of the Fulfillment. Or the Inquisition, whatever name you deem fit for it. Names aside, its goal is singular and true. Destruction. The point of this organization was to bring as much Ruin to the cosmere as possible through any means. This included destruction of all things made by man, natural, and most important, living. Killing on a massive scale was exactly the intention of our organization. The death of all things. And do you know who just slaughtered a great many on this fateful night?"

_Oh, storms. _

"_All of you_. You have Fulfilled the will of Ruin on a scale beyond any of our ranks previously. You slew thousands of people in a single night. An absolute...bloodbath." Detrare gulped and licked his lips. "Don't you see?"

_Storms. He's _right. Rathil looked around to see the guilt cloud the faces of those around him, just as he knew his face was showing.

Detrare actually giggled. "You Knights of the Cosmere are the most successful members of the Fulfillment I've ever known. You sought to destroy us, when really, you just proved yourselves worthy of our ranks. You are now a part of the Fulfillment!"

"Stop," Rathil gasped. Storms, this man was _right_. This was exactly what Rathil had feared, becoming what he sought to destroy. He had no idea how many people the maniacs in that fortress had killed, but tonight, he'd slain well over a hundred on his own. He'd killed more people tonight than any previous night of his life. He was a mass murderer. They all were now. What was next? Spiking himself to gain greater power to kill the Fulfillment and initiating himself into their ranks whether that was his intention or not? He'd sworn to kill those who would bring destruction to others. He was one such person. Storms...did this mean he deserved to kill himself after all? Of course. It all led back to that. Becoming Radiant didn't remove those suicidal tendencies after all. His hand twitched toward the last obsidian dagger at his belt.

Detrare was laughing out loud now. "Even in fighting my people, you have served me! My will is that of my God, and my God has been Ruin! Ha! You did great a great destruction tonight, my comrades! We all did together! You have proven yourself worthy as Exemplars of Ruin!" Detrare fell into a fit of laughter, collapsing to his knees and being forcefully dragged onward by the horse his binding was roped to.

The ******* didn't speak again during their ride to...wherever they were going now. He had said what needed saying. He had pointed out their sins to one another. He had ousted Sam as previously having been in the Inquisition, explaining her spikes and the way she always acted. He'd revealed his history with Phoenix, though Rathil was less surprised by that. Most importantly, Detrare had pointed out the truth. They were no better than him. Storms, they were the attackers in the first place in this scenario. They'd stormed that fortress and slaughtered them all. Those brutes were just defending themselves. _No_, Rathil told himself. _Don't humanize them; that's what he wants, to make you the bad guy in this. Those people would have killed millions if we hadn't stopped them now. _Nevertheless, the group walked on in grim silence, their sins and scars laid bare before the thousand glimmering eyes of the night sky.

**Ene:** I walked quietly with the others. Those who hadn't already been broken after the battle seemed newly shattered by Detrare's latest words. That wasn't the case for me. I'd been in pieces for a long time; this had simply crushed those pieces to dust. Thinking about what _he_ had done to me - though I tried to skim over most of it in my head, telling myself to hold it together until we got to Urithiru - did make me remember something, however. _"They tried to recruit me. They're still trying, unless she stops soon...still trying to get me to turn bad!" _And thinking: _He's bad now. He's what he never wanted to be. _

It hit me, suddenly, that what he might have meant was that the New Inquisition - through Interval - was trying to recruit him. Possibly because of his savantism, unmarred by the usual effects. I looked up sharply at Detrare, then walked over. "May I talk to him? I won't hurt him," I muttered at Cole. I couldn't look him in the face; I felt too embarrassed that I was resorting to speaking with someone we were all supposed to hate. I did hate him, but...it wasn't like he hadn't been through painful events himself. Was it so wrong to feel pity? Cole took a wordless step back, but his gaze remained on us. Fair enough. Staring Detrare in the eyes, I said softly, "Did your Inquisition have spren without Radiants in it?"

**Fire:** Detrare looked up at the girl, peering into her eyes with an eye of flesh and one of steel. What a curious question to ask at such a time. He cocked his head again. "Do you believe in God, young one? What do you think God is? A person merely blessed with great power? An unfathomable force of power given consciousness by the natural will of Investiture? Do you believe this God watches over you?" She looked confused. Good. He had time to chip away at a fragile little soul while he still possessed the power of his tongue.

"Surely you may believe in such a thing. You are Radiant. You have as your companion, a tiny piece of God. I once did as well, did you know that? Not a spren, but a being like into it. A companion, even a friend. I looked to it as a comrade and as a purer form of a God I believe in. A God who has been bound with the chains of the other half of himself. This was taken away from me. A dear friend, gone before my very eyes. Would you wish such a fate upon your spren, little Radiant? Then watch out for these companions of yours. And for my own people, I should admit. We do have...knowledge of how to do as you have guessed. Oh yes, there were Radiants of our own who pledged oaths to the cause of the God we esteemed above the other fifteen, bonded to spren who agreed to them.

But...Hemalurgy, the great manifestation of Ruin's power, the foundation of our organization, has boundless untapped potential. Imagine the power to seize control of such a spren that didn't bond itself to any person." Detrare leaned in to her, close enough to make her recoil, and whispered, "We learned how to, and we did. We took control of a tiny fraction of a fraction of a living piece of Investiture that came from the God you call patron. In our own small way, we manipulated Honor. Do you believe in a God that is fallible? When the very beings who govern the universe can be taken advantage of by mere people, are they even gods?"

He smiled. "It seems we have proven the omnipotence of God to be a sham. We have made use of spren not bonded to any living being. So...do you believe in God, little one? What do you think of such a thing?" _Worry not. You won't live long enough to find an answer to that. Enjoy a broken life while you can. I shall put your shattered soul to rest soon enough._ He leaned back and spoke to her no more.

**Ene:** I almost laughed. He looked so smug, so certain that he had just outtalked me. When he leaned back, I said quietly to him, "I'm not a Radiant. I have never bonded a spren. My religious views have always been hazy, and I've never been especially interested in whether or not God exists. If He doesn't, I'll deal with it." My eyes narrowed as I stared him down. "While I've never had a spren, I've had friends, and you _did_ kill them. So stop trying to break what's already broken."

I'm locked in a memory of deepest night. I'm hardly even there. _You went too far!_ I can't move; I can move too freely; I'm not enough; I'm too much. I kick and gasp and flail and plead. And I scream.

And I scream.

**Sam:** Sam stumbled out of the bar and into the cool night air, leaving three drunk men groaning on the ground behind her. She shook her knuckles, swiping clumsily at the blood that trickled down her face. The temporary oblivion that came from the exhilaration of the fight drained out of her, leaving in its place...nothing.

The place in her heart where her purpose used to be was gone, the emptiness heavier than lead and dragging her down into the shadows. But then again, that was where she had always been, wasn't it? Sam could pretend all she wanted but there was no denying that the small light of rebellion - of _ruin_ \- would always be there, constantly battling the equally small but desperate hunger within her for acceptance, purpose.

She had tried so hard to be _good_, to do as others spoke of doing, doing things simply because they were the honorable thing to do, but the truth was that she would never truly understand what had been beaten out of her, but seemed to come so naturally to the others. She wasn't made for heroism, or for honor like Tesh was, and Sam was tired of pretending.

Rust the Knights for dragging her into their mess and somehow making her care. Rust Detrare for making her the way she was, for telling her that all she ever did was simply to serve Ruin's purposes. Rust herself for being weak and dependent on others for her sense of security. Rust Honor for failing her. Rust purpose. They - and Ruin - could go to heck. She would find acceptance in other ways. From now on she was going to live on her own terms. And for now, that meant drowning herself in as much oblivion as possible.


	21. See You Next Roleplay!

**Phoenix:** Clearing his mind completely, Phoenix focused intently on an object in his sights. Nothing happened. _Not_ _again! _He let his thoughts wander for a few minutes to prepare for another attempt.

Phoenix had separated from the rest of the Knights nearly a week ago, one week after the attack. Most of them were too despondent to even want to be around. Phoenix understood the guilt they carried. He _should_ have carried the same...except he simply didn't feel the weight of it anymore, as if a completely different person deserved to carry it, not him. So it was that Detrare's words completely rolled off of him, and Phoenix made a choice to move on with his life, even as it seemed that the others were unwilling - or unable - to do so. He'd returned to Urithiru with an imprisoned Detrare and Cole, who was too focused on keeping Detrare alive and under guard to wallow in any guilt. Trusting that Cole would keep Detrare safe and locked away, Phoenix returned to his quarters there in the majestic tower.

Soon after, he'd discovered that the Knights Radiant had been refounded by the leader there, Dalinar Kholin. They were actively recruiting, but Phoenix decided to hold off on publicly declaring himself. They had precious few Elsecallers, and Phoenix was not willing to commit to something that required an inordinate amount of his time when he might be needed elsewhere, especially with pockets of the Fulfillment still scattered across the different worlds. At least, he wouldn't declare just _yet_. It would be a pleasure to join the ranks of someone as learned as Jasnah Kholin, young as she was. For the time being, Phoenix had managed to impress the esteemed Navani Kholin using knowledge gained while studying fabrials over the last few years, and was invited to join her team of artifabrian engineers. This had the additional perk of being granted larger quarters with an attached lab for study.

Turning back to the task at hand, Phoenix experimented yet again on another object in his lab, this time a single piece of parchment paper, attempting to command it to life with his Breath. Nothing happened. He could feel the presence of the Breath around him, but it was almost as if it wasn't quite his anymore...well, it was, but yet wasn't. Like a metalmind in which he could sense the power within but could not _quite_ access; such was his Breath. And it was becoming harder and harder to sense, though he knew it was still with him through bronze Allomancy. All of his metalminds were also beginning to show a certain _resistance_ to his drawing upon them, which was very concerning. His powers were simply _abandoning_ him. Except, not _all_ of them. He could still use all of his Allomantic metals freely, and he could still clearly sense his inkspren, Preston.

And of course, as always, the very act of thinking of his spren brought him to stand before Phoenix, an inky mass in the form of a man with very defined and detailed features. "You know, Phoenix, you are no longer the same person now as you were two weeks ago. You're kinder, gentler, more...honorable. I very much like the new you. But I fear, as I am sure you are very much aware by now, that any and all of your powers that were gained in less than honorable circumstances are now resisting you. They are no longer recognizing a Spiritual Connection to you, even though you still carry the raw Investiture. The part of you that retains the Connection to that Investiture is simply no longer a part of you."

"Thanks for the second opinion," Phoenix sighed, letting a large breath out. Preston had confirmed his worst fears. How could he face the threats of the cosmere with half his previous strength? He had come to rely very heavily on his abilities to get him out of trouble, especially his Feruchemical ones.

"Don't despair!" cried Preston, sensing Phoenix's disappointment. "You're still a Mistborn; you still have me and, of course, your fellow Knights of the Cosmere, with whom you just recently brought down the Fulfillment!"

"The Knights of the Cosmere," Phoenix replied. "Yes, when we all fight as one, we are stronger together. I don't have to fight these threats alone. Preston, I do believe I aligned myself with the wrong group of these Knights. I very much underestimated the heart and purpose of those who call themselves Surgefinders. I should go check in on them."

Saodin examined his arms, hands, and the rest of his body. He could sense the fear in the room, knowing that one of _them_ could be chosen next if this host didn't work out, even if being chosen would indeed be a glory and honor! Well, he _had_ killed the previous one because of circumstances he could not have forseen.

On his first host, he had been experimenting with metalminds when he discovered that he, Saodin, was able to fill a gold metalmind with health keyed to himself, and he was even able to compound the health while storing! Even though he was, in essence, a Cognitive Shadow, he amazingly still retained a portion of his former Investiture. However, for some peculiar reason, his Allomancy had stopped working only a few minutes afterward, when he'd tried something similar with a steelmind. Soon after, he began to realize that the unburnt metal, of which he had greedily swallowed several vials after his first successful attempt, was having an adverse effect on his stomach. Rather than take the time and effort of purging his host body, he elected to fill a second goldmind with his host's health, making his host sick so quickly he eventually fell over and died.

It wasn't as if he was _trying_ to get everyone all worked up. Besides, if he just went killing his own followers for no purpose, what good would that serve him, other than reduce his own fighting force? Now if they were killed for a _purpose_, that was another matter entirely. Surely there were those among this group he could spike to regain at least _some_ of his lost Allomantic abilities, at some point in the future. Yes, Saodin _did_ rather like the strong, handsome figure on this one. So everything had worked out for the best anyway.

"Very well!" Saodin spoke loudly over his audience of followers. "This one is acceptable! Now, you will see the glory that this one has, to be allowed to become a pure and holy vessel of Ruin!" That wasn't entirely accurate. What these people didn't realize was that he, Saodin, was _already_ this Splinter of Ruin's true vessel. He had simply taken advantage of the Connections that Detrare had previously forged between Ruin and his followers through the gemstone. The Connections had been ridiculously easy to establish, as the groundwork had already been laid; once that had been done, he found that he could simply hop his awareness from the gemstone to and from the minds of those the Splinter was connected to, and as he retained control of the Splinter as its Vessel, he essentially borrowed that person's mind as long as he wanted. It really was genius.

Due to the limited Investiture of the Splinter, however, he could only possess one mind at a time, leaving a fraction of himself behind in the gemstone in case something went awry. Now if he could somehow increase the power of the Splinter by gathering more Ruin from the cosmere, then he could build an army _literally_ empowered by Ruin itself, and controlled by a master strategist in himself.

So, then, all he needed to do was rebuild the Fulfillment back to its former glory! He had sent word to Nalthis, Sel and Threnody so he could meet and coordinate his plans with the Fulfillment leaders there. The Splinter had shown him precisely where to find their cells, and he had sent out messengers over a week ago now. As for Roshar, the very atmosphere was literally _brimming_ in anticipation of the coming Ruin, so in his mind, there was no better place to center the rebirth of the Fulfillment. He had arranged a meeting this very afternoon with one of the Fused, and he decided that this new host would suit that context perfectly. Sure, his Intent may be different than that of the Fused and the one who led them, Odium, but in the instance of this world, their goals aligned perfectly.

**Fire: **Rathil was blindfolded, by request. Next he was led into the center of the city called Elendel, named after the emperor who had led the fight to save the world. Then he was directed to the center of the famed Field of Rebirth, where Harmony had brought all those who survived the recreation of the world Rathil was so nervous to see. The place he now stood was the successor of the city of death and fear he'd grown up in as a child. How different would it be? How beautiful would it be? He was afraid to look, but excitement and curiosity trumped fear.

Besides, there was no going back now, even if he wanted to. He'd paid good money for this, as well as for the person who'd done this to not ask questions. Because why would any man in his right mind asked to be blindfolded outside of the city and led right into the middle of the Field of Rebirth? So he could get his first good glimpse at the world he'd been born on at the most prosperous and bountiful location on the planet. The very center of restoration Harmony had designed in the Catacendre.

To think that a few weeks ago, he'd thought Scadrial to be nothing, destroyed completely. Back when the idea of the Inquisition returning was unfathomable. Back when he'd thought himself influential and wasn't surrounded by other outcasts of the cosmere, their odd abilities making him look comparatively normal. Funny how quickly times changed. The world had changed for him. Multiple had, in fact. And it was time to finally see how this one had changed. Rathil removed the blindfold.

And gasped. _By the Tranquiline Halls… _

Green grass, flowing in every direction, dancing in the wind. Small white - God Beyond, flowers - with their delicate faces turned toward the bright blue clear sky. Storms, that sky. No clouds, ash, or mist in sight. Just a deep blue extending endlessly, a brightness that extended into eternity. So much blue above. So much green below. And other colors, reds and browns on the buildings, yellows and whites in these flowers...a rainbow of life, prosperity, restoration...an abundance and vibrance he'd never seen on Threnody or Roshar, here on what he'd always known to be the most bleak and soul-sucking of all three worlds he'd lived on.

It was so, so beautiful. No, beautiful was an understatement. This was beyond that. This was heavenly. This was beyond words. This was something he could never have even imagined seeing on a world like Scadrial. Seeing such grandeur filled him with a warming sense of awe. It was as if he was looking at a form of heaven created by God's hand. Which, in a way, it probably was. He had never seen anything more beautiful, more glorious, in his entire life. Rathil began tearing up. He didn't care if he lost it here; it made perfect sense to be reduced to tears of joy here. This was Scadrial, his very first home. The darkest, foulest, most dangerous place he'd ever been in his life, the place he'd grown up in as a child, a teenager, most of his adult life prior to immortality. And it was perfect. God Beyond, how could one place be brimming with much color and life?

He fell to his knees, hands gripping tufts of calm green grass. Nothing like the grass he was used to, the Rosharan grass that hid away at any movement. This was something far more calm and serene. Rathil was far from calm now; he was positively overwhelmed. And yet...at this moment...he felt peace. Seeing this let him take his mind off all the darkness around this lush paradise of life. This was a haven from that darkness, both literal and figurative. He was at peace with something for the first time in decades, maybe centuries. He felt..._happy_ here, actually happy. That never happened anymore. Somehow, he felt real joy. Who couldn't after seeing something as magnificent as this, especially considering what it had been like the last time he'd seen it? Nostalgia was far too simple a term to describe this feeling.

This was true happiness he felt. Rathil leapt to his feet and yelped for joy, running across the Field of Rebirth and laughing like a madman. ****ation to anyone who gave him weird looks or would try detaining him for public indecency. He didn't care. He was too full of this light, which he hadn't known in so long. A couple days ago, he'd been filled with a bunch of Stormlight when he'd sworn that Radiant oath, an energy that healed most of his physical wounds and forced him to act. Now he was filled with spiritual light, an energy that was healing his soul. Well, not healing. He knew that inner darkness would never truly be gone. But God Beyond be praised if he could hold it back for just a short time.

Worlds were ending, evil people, madmen, monsters, ancient eldritch beings, and even gods terrorizing the cosmere left and right; and the Inquisition was still at large on other planets. The universe was in deep crem and everything seemed to slowly be dying away. That darkness within was still there, deep down. Hidden away, but still lurking. Rathil still hated himself, still felt urges to kill himself, and was still infested with murderous hate for the New Inquisition. There was still so much wrong with the cosmere, so much he was going to have to dive back into to kill everything from that Inquisition he could. The cosmere had gone to heck, and his soul was lost and dark as ever.

But there was a small light that could hold that at bay. One thing that was actually going right in a universe drowning in darkness. His home was still here.

For now, that would be enough.

There were still loose ends connected to this interstellar plot. The Fulfillment was on other worlds. Pockets of them remained on Roshar, Nalthis, Threnody, and Sel, ready to persist in their goal even without higher leadership or reinforcement. The whereabouts of a discreet, cosmere-wide human trafficking organization were soon to unfold, sure to be a target of those who sought justice and helping others. Other powerful worldhopping groups knew of the Knights of the Cosmere or of deals individual members were involved in. They would soon come into play as well. A major event had happened tonight, but it was far from the end of their adventures. It was just the beginning of a great many new paths to follow. The future may have been uncertain, but they knew where they could go next.

For the Knights of the Cosmere still had a long journey ahead of them. And that journey came before the destination, whatever it turned out to be. There was still strength in their hearts, strength to hold themselves up when the weakness of hopelessness threatened to consume them. They still lived and could still continue this journey with the life and strength in them.

Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.

**Tesh:** Two weeks. Only two weeks since I watched Mahshi die. I killed him and Sazin and Mathis. They're dead because of me. Two weeks since the new Inquisition was destroyed. Two weeks since those people I'd never know died. But good people die every day.

I stand, looking out over the rooftops of Elendel. Why did this have to be the closest city? Why? Mist rolls through the streets, and my mistcoat flutters in the invisible breeze. As a Windrunner, I can pass fairly easily as an Allomancer. So I do, hiding in the night, using as little of my Stormlight as possible. My small supply is nearly out. I will need to return to Roshar soon. I might have to leave the Knights behind. If I leave them, I might never find them again.

I jump off of the roof, grabbing into the edge, then dropping into the street. I ignore the pain that shoots up from my ankles. It's too trivial a matter to waste precious Stormlight on. I walk down the center of the street, reveling in being hidden, yet being in the center of something. Every once in a while, I pass a huddled from at the edge of the road. None see me except one.

I glance at one figure, and see a pair of dark brown eyes looking up at me from the face of an Alethi. I stop, blinking. That face is unmistakable. I haven't seen a single person who looks like that in all of my time on Scadrial. True, I never did spend much time here. But it's enough. I walk over to the figure, now able to see it's a girl. She must be no older than fifteen. Her eyes follow me, wary, as I get closer. Her black hair is short, but long enough to be pulled back into a short tail at the base of her neck. She says nothing, but looks ready to run at half a moment's notice. Her eyes widen slightly as I draw nearer.

"Why are you here?" I ask. My voice seems to be muffled slightly by the fog. Ani settles on my shoulder, ready to form into a blade if I need it.

"I could ask the same of you," the girl whispers, straightening slightly. The movement reveals a thin scar across her neck, like a knife was once held across it and cut the skin.

"My name is Teshani. I think I might be able to help you," I say. I can't tell this girl of the cosmere if she isn't actually from Roshar. If she is, I need her to speak of it first.

"How so?" she asks. Very helpful.

"Do they have great storms here? Ones that bring Light like at home?"

"Almighty," the girl whispers. "Are you mad? Or are you like me?"

She is. This young girl is from Roshar. Somehow she came to Scadrial. "I am from Roshar, if that is what you mean. And curse the Stormfather if you are not."

The girl stands. "Can you take me home?"

"I can do my best," I say. "I'm running low on Stormlight."

"Stormlight..." the girl whispers. "May...may I see some?"

In response, I hold out an infused diamond chip. Its light creates a small circle around us in the fog.

The girl sighs. She stares at the chip for a time, then looks at me. "My name is Taya. I have been here for nine years. I was kidnapped when I was six and brought to Scadrial. I escaped three weeks ago."

"Escaped from where?"

Her face is clear of emotion, but her eyes are full of pain. "The slavers," she whispers, then looks away. "I won't tell you any more, so please don't ask. Please..._just help me get home_."

A/N: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT A JOURNEY! Come participate in the third installation of this story at the 17th Shard, where Knights of the Cosmere awaits you!...I only just realized the *** in between scenes, as a transition, hasn't been going through. That's depressing. Well, I'm not gonna go through and fix them ALL...sorry :P

Journey before destination!

\- Ene


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